Hydropower plant: Cat supplies equipment for three-dam construction

The Karahnjukar Hydropower project in Iceland draws together two glacial rivers, the Jokulsa i Fljotsdal and the Jokulsa a Dal, in a single reservoir to power generators built deep inside the mountains. The resulting electricity will be used to power a new aluminium smelting plant that is currently being constructed on the North East coast of Iceland at Reydardfordur, for Alcoa.

Caterpillar's Iceland dealer Hekla is supplying the bulk of the equipment to both contractors involved in the project, which calls for the construction of three dams: a central concrete–faced rock fill dam that will be the highest of its kind in Europe and two smaller rock fill saddle dams with an earthen core, one to either side of the main dam. The resulting 57 km² Haslon reservoir will collect water from the vast Vatnajokull glacier.

Construction of the central dam was awarded to Italian contractor Impregilo, with the two saddle dams and groundworks for the aluminium plant in Reydarfjordur being carried out by Icelandic firm Sudurverk. The larger of the two saddle dams, which is 60 m high and 1100 m long, will involve the quarrying, hauling and compacting of more than 2.8 million m³ of material. For the smaller dam, Sudurverk will need to move 1.5 million m³ of rock from nearby quarry areas to create the 25 m high, 1100 m long dam.

The central Karahnjukarstifla dam will be 200 m high and 730 m long. Sitting on top of a reinforced concrete toe wall, which alone required more than 77000 m³ of concrete to build, the dam will include more than 8.5 million m³ of material