Trevi, the «Mission Impossible» at the Mosul Dam is almost finished

In a month, the Trevi Group company will officially complete the works to secure the Iraqi dam.,

After 1,197 days from the start of the works, Trevi, the division of the Trevi Group specialized in deep foundations and geotechnical works, is about to conclude its mission at the Mosul dam in Iraq. There are still about thirty days left and then the project will be completed. It is not a stretch to call it a mission if we consider that the Trevi staff had to work in a real context of war, at least for a year and a half, besides the considerable difficulties of the works.

Pending the closing of the works, last Saturday – in the presence of the Iraqi, Italian and American authorities together with the many technicians and workers who took part in the project for the safety of the Mosul dam – the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources celebrated the transition ceremony. The event formalised the «return» of the dam from the US Construction Management to the technicians of the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources who, from now on, will have to guarantee the constant maintenance of the structure, thanks to the new technologies provided by the Trevi Group.

In over 3 years of uninterrupted activity – often without a real distinction between day and night – the Trevi people counted about 8,000,000 hours of man work, they completed over 5,200 drilling holes for a total length of 395,000 m (almost the distance between Mosul and Baghdad) and have grouted almost 40,000 m3 of cement mixture into the subsoil that supports the dam. In parallel with the activities on site, the training structure carried out training and know-how transfer to 250 engineers, technicians and local operators. Important numbers indeed, necessary to secure a structure that with its 3.5 km barrier and a basin of over 11 billion cubic meters of water is among the largest in the entire Middle East and that – due to a friable soil – has long been a great threat to the whole of northern Iraq.

Eng. Stefano Trevisani, the Trevi Group CEO, who also attended the ceremony, pointed out that Trevi is used to operating under difficult circumstances, but that this project required a very special commitment. Technical difficulties added to very critical environmental and safety conditions that were then overcome thanks to the joint effort and cooperation between the company and the Iraqi, American and Italian authorities. Moreover, the efforts made by the Italian Ministry of Defence that guaranteed the safety of the area for the entire duration of the project ought to be mentioned.

Eng. Trevisani joined the American and Italian ambassadors in Baghdad as well as the Iraqi Minister of Water Resources when they expressed their full «satisfaction with the excellent work carried out» and he also added that the Mosul project states once again the important and recognized position achieved by the Group in the rehabilitation of existing Dams. Mr. Trevisani also praised the quality and the ability of Trevi to successfully deal with complex challenges both from a technological and environmental point of view «.