The work and the technique: Garafiri dam, Guinea

The construction of the Garafiri Dam was awarded to Salini Costruttori, now part of the Webuild Group.  Work on the structure’s design had already begun in 1984, but it was only thanks to the provision of foreign funds, supporting the local government, that it became possible to undertake the initial excavation work some ten years later.

Garafiri is an embankment dam, consisting of a mass of earth amassed into a mound according to the established design. The facility consists of an uncontrolled surface spillway, an intake tower approximately 75m high, and two lined tunnels - spanning 5.8 and 8.8m in diameter, respectively - for a total length of 610m, as well as a surge tank with an upper diameter of 28m and height of 37.5m, and a lower diameter of 8.8m and height of 32m.

The structure also has an access tunnel, three penstocks spanning a combined total of 700m, and a power plant fitted with three Francis turbines, for a total installed capacity of 75 MW.

Work on the project was completed in the space of three years, and the facility was finally opened on 22 July 1999.