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Concrete plays a major role in the water resources infrastructure
in North America. The market for water resources covers applications
such as water conveyance, water and waste water treatment facilities,
dams, spillways, canals, bank protection, and reservoir liners to
name a few. The types of cement based products can also vary from
conventional concrete, roller- compacted concrete (RCC), soil-cement,
grouts, precast blocks, and flowable fill.
The Water Resources program within the Portland Cement Association
(PCA) provides technical publications and technical assistance to
engineers, contractors, regulators, and owners for many of the applications
of cement- based materials in the water resources market. But the
main focus of the PCA Water Resources program is on RCC and soil-cement.
Roller-Compacted Concrete
 RCC
has been in use since 1980 in water control type applications. Because
of the economics of RCC construction and its rapid rate of placement
RCC has just about replaced conventional concrete for gravity dams
and at certain sites can be competitive with earthfill and rockfill
dams. In addition, due to the large number of existing dams that
have inadequate spillway capacities, RCC has become the choice of
many engineers for providing overtopping protection.
As of 2002 over 250 RCC projects have been completed in North America.
These projects have ranged from the 1.4 million cubic yards used
at the 318 foot high Olivenhain Dam in Southern California to the
1,000 cubic yard overtopping project at White Meadow Dam in New
Jersey.
Soil-Cement
 Soil-cement
has a much longer performance history than RCC. Soil-cement has
been used for over 70 years getting its start as a means of improving
the subgrade beneath asphalt and concrete pavements.
The Bureau of Reclamation in 1950 constructed a soil-cement test
section along a portion of the shoreline at Bonny Reservoir in eastern
Colorado. The Bureau monitored the performance of the soil-cement
for ten years and found that even with numerous freeze/thaw cycles
and substantial wave action the soil-cement proved to be an acceptable
replacement for rip rap.
In the 1970’s Pima County in Arizona decided that if soil-cement
worked for slope protection why not bank protection in the arroyos,
washes, and rivers that have highly erodable banks in areas subjected
to infrequent but devastating flash floods. Today in Pima County
over 75 miles of stream banks are protected with soil-cement.
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