Background
After the Harza Engineering Company of USA designed the dam, construction began in 1956. The reservoir began to fill in November 1961 and the dam was complete that same year. After the reservoir filled, several problems occurred. In 1967, there was a major slope failure about 100 m (328 ft) upstream of the dam. This and other slope failures are continually under repair. The bedrock beneath the dam has to be re-grouted and the crest of the dam settled too much, required it to be repaired. The rip-rap on the upstream face of the dam was also repaired in 1999 and 2000. Between 1983 and 1985 the dam's power station was replaced by Russian and Japanese companies. The original 2 x 800 kW generators were replaced with the current power plant's 83 MW generators. The generators were commissioned in 1990 after the political situation in the country calmed. However, two of the generators were not commissioned correctly and the turbines suffered from severe cavitation. New spillway gates were installed between 1989 and 1990 after they were removed in 1988 because of the Iran-Iraq War. During the war, the spillway and substation were damaged from bombing. The power station was damaged from bombing in 1990 as well. In 2007, the World Bank began a US$40 million project to repair the Darbandikhan and Dokan Dams. Repairs to the Darbandikhan Dam are expected to cost over $20 million and be complete in late 2012.
Read more about this topic: Darbandikhan Dam
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