page_title: Steel dam
section_title: Direct strutted
hierarchical_section_title: Steel dam / Principles of operation / Direct strutted
caption_attribution_description: Cross sectional view of a Steel dam, direct strutted variant.
context_page_description: A steel dam is a type of dam that is made of steel, rather than the more common masonry, earthworks, concrete or timber construction materials.
  Relatively few examples were ever built. Of the three built in the US, two remain, the Ashfork-Bainbridge Steel Dam, built in 1898 in the Arizona desert to supply locomotive water to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and the Redridge Steel Dam, built 1901, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to supply water to stamp mills. The third, the Hauser Lake Dam in Montana, was finished in 1907 but failed in 1908.
  Steel dams were found uneconomical after World War I as the steel prices raised many times compared to cement prices though they are equally sound like other dam building materials. Their economics are highly favourable in 21st century due to lower total onsite labour costs, lower cost for bulk material transportation, availability of more construction time in a year, and flexibility in construction plan complying statuary requirements, etc.
context_section_description: In the direct strutted version, shown in the illustration at left, all the struts are parallel. There is thus no tensile force in the plate girders.
caption: Cross section of a steel dam with direct struts
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