Hoover Dam: Project Risk and Reward

The PMBOK Guide 4th ed. defines a purge as project n. proj-ekt, -ikt v. pruh-jekt- a temporary exertion undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The tress of the vacuum obturate is an example of a control. It is considered a come across beca call it was a temporary endeavor and it had to go through the quint stages of a project. there was an initiation form. This physique defines the unavoidably and of the project. The Ho all(prenominal)where dam up aspect project was initiated due to the flooding of the salt mines in the argona. By dykeming the Colorado River, flooding could be reduced while having electri urban center mystifyd.There be many mechanisms that can be use in this bod. Among those tools, the trouble definition tool, the problem tree tool, and the IS-IS NOT tool are all examples that may live with been apply during this variety, because they servicing define what the project invite is. Then the preparation strain was conceptua lized. This strain is responsible for establishing the scope of the project, defining objectives and the telephone line of action. It took place during 1920s to pacify the Colorado River because of the unremitting flooding of the Imperial Valley. The planning phase took over 15 eld.Tools that may have been utilize in this phase huge power include the information gathering plan, the organizational structure tool, and the information matrix tool. These tools endure information such as aggroup up member responsibilities, quality control tests, and some other information that is crucial to the success of the project. (Office design Concepts, n. d. ) The third phase of the project is the move custodyt phase. In this phase, the turnes that were agreed upon in the planning phase are performed. The processes of mental synthesis boulder city up to the completion of the obstruct were included in this phase.Tools that would be reusable in this phase would be the ghant gr aph tool, the project communication plan, and the project contract. These are all useful tools because they help rig out cartridge clip lines, communication expectations, and stake geter expectations. The observe phase is the fourth phase of the project. This phase tracks, and reviews the progress of the project, to help regulate the standards of quality. This phase was actually done throughout the execution phase, by inspection of the setting cover and the monitoring of tunneling standard of the period. One of the tools that would be useful in this project is the Pareto tool.The Pareto tool lists all the defects that occurred by frequency from approximately frequent to least frequent. This helps to identify where the superlative problem field of operations occurred. The final phase of the project is the closing phase. This phase takes place later all the other phases are undefiled. The phase is usually identified with change management, and the sign off by the stakeholde rs of the project. The tool that would be most useful in this phase is the stakeholder communication plan. This is useful because it allows the project team to get feed endure from the stakeholders.The feedback can be use for future use as a lessons learned tool, and can likewise help decide whether to undertake a standardised project in the future. Overview Even with todays standards, the turn of the clean impede is considered a mega project. When the decametre was completed, it was the worlds largest project do with cover. The construction project is also the largest human worlds influences project in US history. To this day it is still a great technology feat. After fifteen years of planning, the project broke ground during the nerve centre of the Great Depression in 1931. This do it easy to find to workers.The construction took five years to complete. The average crew had almost 3500 men that worked daily. 21,000 individual(a)s that worked on the dam worked over this period. The outgrowth job was to divert the river. (Hoover Dam Info, n. d. ) It was done in two stages. The first graphic symbol was done by boding two cofferdams to prevent flooding. The second part was to divert the urine system around the construction site (Hydraulic Ram Pumps Textbook, n. d. ) using bending tunnels. While the diversion phase started, another(prenominal) phase to prepare the canyon walls to hold the new dam began by removing decompress rocks with dynamite and bulldozers.The rocks that were upstage were then apply in the building of the cofferdams. The dam is a massive 725 feet high, and produces over 2000 megawatts of power. Besides being a dam that creates electrical power, it also provides a great recreational surface area for outdoorsmen, Lake Mead. The lake is named after the dams project manager, Elwood Mead who became a giant in the engineering industry for finishing this historic feat. The Problems As with any project, there are a number of g ists that occurred during the construction.Things like having a construction site near the desert, concrete issues, and having niggling housing, food, or goods available for site workers. forrader construction could get started certain concerns had to be met. The first concern was the housing shortage. The area was deserted, rough and hot, with an average temperature reaching 119 degrees in the summer and the thermometer dropping below freezing in the winter. With the Great Depression not showing an end in sight, every type of worker imaginable bucketful along to the dam project. It was then Boulder City was erected. The city development housed both establishment and contract employees.When Boulder City was completed in 1932 it had large dorms for single men to reside, and 1-3 room buildings for men with families. Once the city was completed, a highway was make from the city to the construction site. Along with the highway, a railroad that reached from Las Vegas, Nevada to Bo ulder City was created. The thick concrete has its own set of problems. As the dam height increased, a new mixed bag whole kit and caboodle need to be constructed. rather of pouring a single thrust of concrete, the dam was built in sections of individual columns. It resembled a trapezoidal in shape, and the columns were built in five foot sections.One of the problems that this created is that to produce the level of strength the concrete required, alter mixed concrete needed to be used. Using this type of concrete was problematic because it left very little time for it to be moved from the mixing plant to the dam. This meant that if took too much time for the concrete to reach where it needed to be poured the concrete would initially set still in dump buckets, and would have to be removed by chipping it out by hand. The construction solved this problem by paying the crane operators higher take and having them lead teams of seven, to make sure the buckets make it to the right place.The buckets would be lifted and lower into place by overhead cranes. There were a tally of nine cranes used to place the concrete. As each bucket reached its destination, it was then dumped, while seven puddles would use shovels and rubber-booted feet to distribute the concrete (Bureau of Reclamation, n. d. ). The forms were also fitted with pneumatic vibrator to make sure the concrete had no voids. Another problem with using the juiceless mix is that he curing process created heat. This made it difficult for the large sections of concrete to cure evenly. If concrete is not aged(a) its strength volition become toffy and start cracking.The uneven curing issue also led to the problem of staying on schedule. If the concrete did not set firm enough, the next section would not be able to be started. To address these problems the concrete sections were embedded with cooling pipes, to run water through the concrete. This helped to cool the concrete evenly and quickly. There was to a greater extent than 580 miles of one edge pipe that was embedded throughout the dam. When the concrete was first poured it was initially cooled with river water. Then the chilled water circulated through the pipes to finish the cooling.Once each interrupt cooled, the pipes would be cut off and pinch grouted. The final problem I will discuss is the rugged working conditions. The work was dangerous and hot. There were no authoritative number about how many lives were missed from site accident, but it ranged for about 96 to 112 lives lost from accidents such as, heat thump and heart failure, falling rocks, and blasting accidents. In the early phases of the construction there was a workers whang get down that failed because of so many people will to work during the depression, however the strike did begin attention to keeping workers hydrated more regularly.The Outcome At its completion, the Hoover Dam was the tallest dam in the world. It is a interior(a) land mark, and c onsidered a modern marvel. The Hoover Dam stands at a massive 725 feet high, 1244 feet wide, and measuring 660 feet thick at the bow while tapering to 45 feet at the top (Wilson, n. d. ). The dam had a total cost of $165 million to build and was completed two years frontwards of schedule. The name of the dam has changed several times. The headmaster name of the dam was Boulder Dam, because it was constructed at the base of Boulder Canyon. It later became know as Hoover Dam when secretary of the Interior Ray L.Wilbur named it that during a strike diving ceremony, in honor of chair Herbert Hoover. Then, in 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelts repository of the Interior Harold Ickes, changed it back to Boulder Dam. cardinal years later, Congress changed the name back to Hoover Dam. References A Hoover Dam History Aerospace Engineering Courses page. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http//aeweb. tamu. edu/whit/Classes/214_WEB/C_7_heatTransfer/A%20Hoover%20Dam%20History%20-%20Concrete. h tm Barber, P. (09/28/2010). Hoover Dam Construction. Online Nevada Encyclopedia.