Structural solutions for dams

How VSL adds value to dam projects

Building or upgrading a dam requires proven technical expertise, advanced construction methods, and precise execution. VSL contributes engineered solutions that enhance foundation stability, improve structural performance, optimize constructability, and support compliance with modern dam safety standards—whether for new-build structures or rehabilitation programs.

How VSL adds value to dam projects

Building or upgrading a dam requires proven technical expertise, advanced construction methods, and precise execution. VSL contributes engineered solutions that enhance foundation stability, improve structural performance, optimize constructability, and support compliance with modern dam safety standards—whether for new-build structures or rehabilitation programs.

  • 70 years
    of dam engineering expertise

What we do: VSL’s capabilities for dams

VSL delivers the geotechnical and structural capabilities required to design and build safe and durable dam infrastructures.

Ground Investigation

Comprehensive subsurface investigations -drilling, in-situ testing, geophysics, and instrumentation, provide essential data to characterize foundation conditions and support safe, optimized dam design.
Ground Investigation – Dams

Ground Improvement

Foundation behavior is enhanced through grouting, jet grouting, permeation treatment, or cut-off systems to control seepage, improve bearing capacity, and manage settlement.
Ground Improvement – Dams

Post-tensioning for Dams

Vertical or inclined post-tensioning tendons increase resistance to overturning and sliding, strengthening new dams or enabling existing structures to meet current design standards.
Post-Tensioning – Dams

Ground Anchors

Active or passive ground anchors provide additional capacity when dam blocks, ancillary structures, or adjacent zones require stabilization against uplift, lateral movements, or hydraulic forces.
Ground Anchors – Dams

Cut-off Walls

Cut-off solutions - using slurry trenches, diaphragm walls, or grouted barriers, reduce seepage paths and improve foundation tightness where groundwater control is critical.
Cut-off walls – Dams

Retaining Earth Walls

Engineered retaining walls support level changes around dam abutments, access roads, and ancillary structures, ensuring long-term ground stability in constrained or sloped areas.
VSoL® – Dams

Why Choose VSL for dam construction?

Ensuring dam performance requires proven engineering, precise execution, and reliable technologies. VSL contributes integrated capabilities and long-standing experience to support dam projects from investigation to rehabilitation.

This integration ensures consistent design intent and seamless coordination across foundation and superstructure works.

Our teams adapt methods and equipment to suit each dam type’s specific load paths, geometry, and regulatory requirements.

VSL systems offer controlled installation, verified performance, and long-term monitoring options for safety-critical structures.

Mobile equipment and modular construction methods enable efficient execution even where access, altitude, or transport capacity is limited.

This continuity helps optimize solutions from initial investigations through to long-term rehabilitation strategies.

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FAQs about dam construction

Here are some of the questions we’re asked most often about Dam Construction. If you have more, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Gravity, arch, buttress, roller-compacted concrete, and embankment dams.

Yes, through investigation data, constructability reviews, and PT design support.

Most works can be phased to limit impacts on dam functionality.

Yes, including load cells, anchor monitoring, and integrated instrumentation solutions.

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Need investigation, foundation improvement, strengthening, or rehabilitation for a dam project?

Contact VSL to discuss your technical requirements with our specialists.