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Reclamation Completes Full Travel Gate Testing at Buffalo Bill Dam

Story and Photo by Bryson Jones, Missouri Basin Public Affairs

Media Contact: Bryson Jones (406) 247-7674 bkjones@usbr.gov
For Release: Aug 25, 2022
Reclamation employees inspect a spillway gate at Buffalo Bill Dam. Reclamation employees inspect a spillway gate at Buffalo Bill Dam.

CODY, Wyo.— The Bureau of Reclamation’s Wyoming Area Office completed a full travel gate testing at Buffalo Bill Dam outside of Cody, Wyoming, Aug. 22-24.

Every six years Reclamation employees perform full travel testing on Buffalo Bill’s two spillway gates. This is done to ensure the massive 28-foot by 20-foot, stainless steel faced gates work to their full capacity when called upon to open and release water from Buffalo Bill Reservoir. While the full travel test is done in six-year intervals, Reclamation does a 10 percent test yearly to ensure everything is in working order. This mandated testing integrates Operations and Maintenance work activities alongside Reclamation’s Safety of Dams Program.

“The last time that we did a full travel test at this facility was in 2015,” said Mark Skoric, Big Horn Basin Facilities Manager. “We were delayed one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so we are excited to complete the testing.”

Starting Aug. 22, the Reclamation employees of Buffalo Bill Dam began preparing for the task at hand. To begin evaluating the gates, the water from the reservoir needed to be stopped. The process of cutting off the water began by lifting massive steel stop logs with rubber seals down the upstream face of the spillway structure closing the flow of water to the gates. This process was done with the help of a crane and a special rigging that allowed for the logs to be released from the topside of the dam.

Once the stop logs were in place, the void immediately behind the spillway gate was drained and the differential pressure created pressed the stop logs firmly in place. After the water was drained, the gates were unrestricted to maneuver freely without water flows from the reservoir.

The employees and engineer teams then maneuvered the gate fully open. While the gate was moving it was timed, and visually inspected. The gate was checked for deterioration, rubber seal condition and the massive hydraulic cylinder was inspected as it lifted the load.

Upon completion, the team closed the gate, refilled the void behind it relieving the pressure, lifted the stop logs out of place, and began the same process on the second gate.

“All in all, we had a successful and safe examination on both gates,” said Skoric. “Both are fully operational and doing what they need to do to ensure water flows from Buffalo Bill Dam when required.”

The planning, safe execution, and examination exemplify the careful dedication Reclamation brings to ensure water is reliably delivered to the state of Wyoming and the American West.

Buffalo Bill Dam, on the Shoshone River about 4 miles upstream from Cody, Wyoming, is a concrete arch structure of constant radius. The structural height is 350 feet and the volume is 87,515 cubic yards. It is one of the first high concrete dams built in the United States. The reservoir impounds 646,565 acre-feet of water.

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