The dam of the Kirovskoe reservoir was constructed in 1971-1975 on the Talas River. The main purpose of the reservoir is for irrigation; its total volume is 550 million m ~, the useful volume 540 million m s. The reservoir was created by a concrete buttress dam, A dam of such type was constructed for the first time in the USSR. The height of the dam is 84 m, crest length 260 m, slope of the upstream and downstream faces 0~With respect to design, the Kirovskoe dam was divided into three zones dependlnE on the working conditions of the concrete in the operating period and was constructed by the "Toktogul" method with the use of sectlonalizatlon into concreting blocks. The widths of the concreting blocks varied from 22 m (head) to 12 m (buttress); the length reached 77 m.Two grades of concrete were used: 25 MPa R18 V-8 Mrz200 (279,000 m ~) and 20 MPa RI6 V-6 Mrz150 (50,000 ms). Concrete grade 20 MPa was placed in the buttresses and downstream heads of the sections.Cements of various grades from different cement plants were used in the initial period of constructin E the dam. Beginning in April 1972 only low-heat sulfate-resistant portland cement grade 300 was used. This simplified the selection and correction of the concrete compositions and promoted an increase of the homogeneit7 of its properties. The cement met all requirements of the technical specifications for cement for constructing the dam of the Kirovskoe reservoir. It main properties were sufficienLly stable, which is characterized by comparatively low coefficients of variation of aotivit~ (C V of compressive strength, 6.1%; Cvof beindinE tensile strength, 12.3Z), specific surface (CV ffi 8.7), and content of alkalies (Cv = 14.0%).