Bowersock Power Rubber Dam
The Bowersock Mills & Power Company owns and operates the hydro facilities at the Bowersock Dam on the Kansas River in Lawrence, Kansas. These facilities include the south powerhouse with seven turbine/generator units for a combined generating capacity of 2.35 MW, and the newly built north powerhouse with four new turbine/generator units for an additional installed capacity of 4.6 MW.
As part of the North Powerhouse Project, Bowersock installed four sections of inflatable rubber dams atop the existing concrete dam to help maintain upstream impoundment elevations for power generation. These rubber dams, supplied by HTE Engineering, replaced the old wooden flashboards which were manually raised into position and were prone to leaking.
The supplied air-inflated rubber dams measure 7 feet tall when fully inflated. The four equal sections each measure approximately 125 feet in length.
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