Concrete-placing operations in the construction of navigation locks

Abstract

As part of the low-and medium-head hydraulic developments on the navigable rivers of our country, locks made from plain or reinforced concrete are usually constructed. Tlm only exception is the lock at the Kamsk hydroelectric plant, whose chamber walls are made from steel sheet piles. Concrete placing for navigation structures whose specific vohtme usually reaches 30-35% of the total volume of work at hydraulic developments, plays an important role in the evaluation of the project being built. Hence, the subject matter of the book here reviewed, which was written on the basis of present-day experience, is highly topicalThe first chapter contaim information about the volumes of concrete work for locks, according to ths head, the feeding system, and the comtmcrional solutions, and gives for the specific consumption basic materials, labor consumption, and cost of reinforced-concrete work. The second chapter presents a survey of the concrete-placing methods used during the past 15-20 years for construction of locks in the Soviet and foreign practice. The author examines the most widely used methods for transporting the concrete mix to the blocks being concreted: selfpowered vehicles, buckets handled by different types of cranes, belt conveyors, and concrete pumps; an evaluation of these methods is given, along with a description of methods for preparing the blocks, and for placing, compacting, and curing the concrete.