Seepage through till foundations of dams of the Eastmain – Opinaca – La Grande diversion

The EOL (Eastmain – Opinaca – La Grande) diversion scheme of the La Grande Complex (phase I) for the James Bay Hydroelectric development in northern Québec diverts the waters of the Eastmain, Opinaca, and Petite Opinaca Rivers into the LG 2 reservoir. The EOL diversion consists of four dams and seven dykes about half of which are founded for part of their length on overburden foundations of variable thickness and consisting of heterogeneous deposits of glacial till or sandy and silty alluvia. The till core of these zoned embankments is either placed directly on the till strata or extended through the alluvia to the underlying till by a core trench. The construction of these embankments was completed in 1979 and the maximum reservoir level achieved in November 1980.This paper deals with the seepage and pore pressure behaviour in the overburden foundations, namely, dams OA-10B and OA-11 and the dyke OA-8B, during and subsequent to the reservoir filling. The results of the parametric seepage analyses carried out by finite element methods are compared with the observations. Special attempts are made to resolve the long-existing speculations regarding the anisotropy of natural deposits. Comments are made regarding the effective anisotropy of such deposits in the James Bay region and its effect on exit gradients and uplift forces, which influence the design and safety of dams and dykes.