Historical perspectives of engineering project design, organisation and management: construction of the Elan Valley dams

Abstract

The Elan Valley estate is situated within mid-Wales, Great Britain. It represents a watershed of approximately 70 square miles and accommodates four dams built at the turn of the twentieth century, along with another completed in 1952. Combined, these supply the city of Birmingham, England, with a significant proportion of its fresh clean water. The dams’ engineering design and construction represented a project that overcame huge logistical, technical and management challenges and in so many ways, therefore, was contemporaneously innovative, imaginary and monumental. That project is qualitatively analysed through extant and especially historical literature, complemented with other archive materials. Findings that relate to exemplar engineering project design, organisation and management (EPDOM) of the time are highlighted. By discussing some of these in light of modern engineering convention, observations on EPDOM evolution are made, in addition to providing an historical engineering perspective per se.