Alqueva Dam

Alqueva Dam

It’s a portuguese dam and

it’s located on the Guadiana

River in the Alentejo region.

It’s the biggest dam in

Portugal.

The main objectives of this

dam are:

• water supply;

• Hydroelectrical power;

• Irrigation;

• Flood prevention.

Alqueva Dam

This is an arch dam , one of the types

of concrete dam.

They are built in tight valleys and are

very strong;

They are thinner than any other type of

dam, so it require less construction

material.

There is another type of dam:

embankment dams, formed from soil

and rocks.

The construction begins in 1975

but two years later stops;

The works restarted in 1995, when

Empresa de Desenvolvimento e

Infra-estruturas do Alqueva (EDIA)

was created;

The dam started to fill up in 2002

and Alqueva hydroelectric central

opened in 2004.

Alqueva Dam

In 2002, the Luz village was

submerged by water when

the dam gates were closed

and the Alqueva dam started

to fill up.

Alqueva Dam

The dam has an area of

250.000 square meters

(m2 );

It has a length of 83 Km and

a total capacity over 4 trillion

liters (l)

Alqueva Dam

It had a maximum number

of 450 employees;

It was used:

• 120.500 cubic meters

(m3 ) of concrete;

• 11.400 tonnes (t) of

steel;

• And it was spent 2.5

billions euros.

Alqueva Dam

In this region we can

fish, hunt or sail.

Alqueva Dam

Andreia Pinto

nº 39755