After the major rain event of mid-January, 2013, the Tennessee Valley Authority had to quickly release water from some of its tributary dams in order to recover storage space for any additional winter rainfall. One of those tributary dams is Fontana Dam on the Little Tennessee River in North Carolina. Fontana Dam is 480 feet high, making it the tallest dam in the eastern United States. Instead of spilling water over the dam or sluicing it through the dam, Fontana utilizes a pair of 34 foot diameter tunnels to divert excess water through the bedrock and around the dam.
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| Water emerging from the diversion tunnel |
For a sense of scale, note that the tunnel opening in the video is 34 feet in diameter. In order to keep from eroding the streambed during diversion operations, a pair of ramps were constructed at the outlets of the tunnels to disperse the kinetic energy of the moving water harmlessly above the river.
The website for the Tennessee Valley Authority is http://www.tva.gov.
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