Author(s): Razek Abdelnour; Elie Abdelnour; George Comfort
Linked Author(s): George Comfort, Razek Abdelnour
Keywords: No keywords
Abstract: Safety booms to warn boaters of fast water currents that leads to dangerous situations upstream and downstream of hydroelectric power plants have been deployed at many generating stations in the world in order to minimise potential accidents resulting from accidental intrusion. In cold regions, where ice is present during the winter season, these booms are installed in early June and removed in October to avoid damage by ice. However, significant delays were encountered in some years for the deployment of these booms due to high river flow, which lasted several days after the start of the summer season when boater’s traffic is seen to increase in these waterways. It is also difficult to decide on the date for the removal of these booms, as the window of opportunity between the desired date of removal and the start of ice formation is some times very short. This can make the task of removing the boom difficult to plan ahead, and more than often, the boom is removed much earlier than desired. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design, construction, and observation of one typical safety boom installed in the summer of 2006 in the Headpond of Bark Lake flow control dam, owned and operated by Ontario Power Generation (OPG), Ontario. This boom was designed to remain in the water year round.
Year: 2008