Challenging civil works for the Upper Kon Tum dam set several records in Vietnam

This paper describes the main structures of the Upper Kon Tum dam and hydro plant. It is Vietnam’s highest homogeneous earthfill dam, has the longest headrace tunnel, and is the first dam in the country to have an air cushion surge chamber (ACSC). Construction of the headrace tunnel involved several challenging concerns as a result of geological conditions and the use of a second-hand TBM. A description of how these challenges were overcome is presented, along with the design and construction of the dam, the headrace tunnel and the sole ACSC in Vietnam. The scheme is reported to now be operating satisfactorily with an output of more than 1500 GWh in 2022.