The Bureau of Reclamation invites the public to the presentation, “Building Grand Coulee Dam,” by Raymond “Paul” Giroux on August 25, 2018, at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center at 6:30 p.m. The program is free of charge.

During the early twentieth century the Bureau of Reclamation was charged with harnessing the water potential of the western United States. Critical to this vision was taming the mighty Columbia River. With river flows more than 300,000 cubic feet per second, building the biggest concrete dam in the world in a remote area of eastern Washington was seemingly impossible. Construction began during the Great Depression, and the success of the project was not only essential to America’s long-term interests, but also instrumental in providing jobs for thousands of people with the hope to restore the entire region. In the decades preceding Grand Coulee Dam’s construction, tremendous advancements were realized in every discipline of engineering.

Mr. Giroux’s presentation highlights how the right men, the right machines, and the right methods all came together to build a project of unprecedented scope and challenges. Giroux is the author of several bridge design and civil engineering history papers. He also is an active public speaker at engineering schools throughout the United States and other international venues. In 2017, he was the recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers Roebling Award for Construction Engineering and was inducted into the Iowa State University Construction Engineering Hall of Fame in 2018.

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