2024 – Next Generation Debris/Safety Boom Design

Brittany Toews, David Bonin, Andrew Muir, Trevor Wilson, Alan Le Couteur, Samita Chakrabarti

Public safety is at the forefront of the professional engineering practice. There is an understanding within the industry that a majority of the public does not understand the risks to themselves while recreating near a spillway or dam structure. To reduce recreational patrons from endangering themselves and providing potential self-rescue opportunities, installations of permanent booms has been occurring across the globe. Many facilities owned by BC Hydro are protected by timber debris booms. This type of boom is becoming unsustainable due to a reduction in the availability of acceptable logs, an increasing price of acceptable logs, the need to provide additional public safety features, the ineffectiveness of these booms in retaining debris, and their short lifespans. BC Hydro requested a new type of boom be designed for the Kootenay Canal facility to serve the dual purpose of debris interception and public safety. This new boom design was intended to be a pilot project that may be applied to other BC Hydro facilities. Several design alternatives were assessed to find a boom design that would balance cost, durability, longevity, and ease of maintenance while meeting BC Hydro’s public safety and dam safety priorities. The final design chosen consists of a double steel pontoon connected with structural members with a vertical steel grating attached to the upstream pontoon for debris retention and to provide freeboard and public visibility. The boom design has since proved effective at several BC Hydro sites.