Lebanon dam construction

The Chabrouh Dam is due to be completed in 2006 and will be the biggest in Lebanon. Situated in 40 km northeast of Beirut, the earth dam will prevent flooding and provide valuable drinking supplies by creating a lake with a 4.6 km² surface area and capacity of 8 million m³. Volvo's local dealer, J&G Abdelmassih, has supplied two EC290BLC excavators, two L180E and one L150E wheel loaders and two L20B compact wheel loaders to the project.

The L20Bs are working in the intake and storm drain tunnels beneath the dam. Fitted with 1.2 m³ general purpose buckets, their compact dimensions at 5.3 m long and 1.6 m wide, mean they can easily move excavated material, concrete and steel supports inside the pipe.

The bigger L150E and L180Es, fitted with general purpose or spade nosed buckets, air conditioning, L4 Bridgestone tyres and oil bath precleaners, are working at a nearby quarry. There they load stone onto on-highway trucks that feed the crushers supplying 1.7 million m³ of fill material for the earth dam.

The addition of a Rotatilt attachment to the EC290BLCs allows a grading bucket, which swivels about its axis, to be used to form the exact 4.8:1 slope of the dam. The grading bucket establishes the right slope and then the EC290BLC replaces the bucket with a compactor using Volvo's quick hitch and tamps down the material to the required density.