Ceres Dam, situated in the mountains above Ceres in the Ceres Valley, South Africa is a 60m high Rock-Fill asphalt Core Dam with a 387m crest length. This is the first dam on the African continent built using this technique -asphalt. During the massive earthquake in 1969 the old concrete dam was severely damaged and had to be replaced. Replacing/rebuilding a new structure made it possible to increase the reservoir from the existing 0.4 million m³ to 17million m³.

The asphalt core is 50cm wide and has filter zones on both the up-stream and the Down Stream side. Each filter core measures 1.5m. 4500m³ of prepared asphalt was used to complete the dam.

Ceres Koekedouw Dam Instrumentation consists of the following:

• Vibrating Wire foundation Piezometers measuring pore pressure.
• Two Vertical Inclinometer casings with Spider Magnets for measuring Settlement.
• Vibrating Wire Transducer measuring seepage.

Instruments installed in and around the Dam Embankment are intended to monitor:

• Tilt of the Dam;
• Measuring the pore pressure;
• Measuring the settlement;
• Seepage weirs;
• Lake Level Recorder.

Installed Instruments Specification:

Seepage (Dam)

• Geokon Vibrating Wire Transducers Vented Model 4580

Piezometers (Foundation, Lake Level)

• Geokon Vibrating Wire Model 4500S

• Geokon Vibrating Wire Pressure Transducers Model 4500H

• Geokon Vibrating Wire Pressure Transducers Model 4500HH

Inclinometer (Main Embankment)

• Geokon Inclinometer Casing Model 6500

• Geokon Inclinometer Probe Model 6000

Data Acquisition System CR1000 (Valve House)

• Geokon Micro-1000 Data logger Model 8021

• Geokon Multiplexer (MUX) Model 8032

Designers: N/A

Consulting Engineers: Bester Consultants

Contractors: Grinaker LTA