Project
The Mazzè dam, with a reservoir of over 3 million cubic meters, stands as a true achievement of hydraulic engineering. Construction began in 1921 and was completed the following year, serving as an irrigation system based on the waters of the Dora Baltea river. The creation of an adjustable dam made it possible to store the energy required to lift the water needed for irrigating the territories on both sides of the river, covering an agricultural area of approximately 4,000 hectares. The water lifting service and its distribution commenced on June 24, 1924.
Intervention
The reconstruction of the dam (on the orographic left side of the central building) involved spurs 1 to 6, with the removal of the previous bulkheads and the reconstruction of the spurs. The dam was completely dismantled, and spurs 1-6 were entirely rebuilt from the foundations (jet grouting work for the subfoundations), with the installation of 5 separately operable gates for regulating the flow of the Dora Baltea river. Simultaneously with the new construction, monitoring instrumentation was installed.
Field was tasked with the supply, installation, centralization, and management of the monitoring system, which included:
- 4 Casagrande piezometers with pressure transducers
- 4 monobase extensometers
- 4 vibrating-wire extensometers for reinforcement
- 8 vibrating-wire extensometers for concrete
- 4 pressure cells
- 6 biaxial clinometers
- Restoration of 6 existing monobase extensometers
- 1 Radar level gauge
All the instrumentation was connected to the data logger through 8 Mux and 800 meters of multipolar cable. The system also handles the measurements from two additional level gauges and three piezometers on the left bank. The data is managed, processed, and delivered to the client via a dedicated AIDA IoT web page. Sensor installation operations were completed in September 2023, while monitoring and data management are still ongoing.
Results
The installation of a fixed monitoring system, with hourly reading frequency and data management through the AIDA IoT web platform have enabled precise control of the structure since september 2023.
Thanks to AIDA IoT, the client can access all monitoring data for the structure, groundwater levels upstream and downstream of the reservoir, as well as the water level in the reservoir, all with a user-friendly platform.
