Boquerón Reservoir
Background
Damages caused by torrential rains, historically occurring on the left margin of the Mundo river in urban and agricultural areas, have been deemed catastrophic in many occasions, so it became necessary to urgently establish a defense and canalization plan to be implemented in the area subject to the study.
To that effect, the General Directorate of Hydraulic Works approved the public information file of the Segura Basin General Flood Defense Plan on November 12, 1986, within the Public Investment Program framework.
The anticipated actions of the General Defense Plan included, in particular, the Defense and canalization of the main affluents on the left margin of the Mundo river.
After the catastrophic damages caused by the flash floods of July and October 1986, the Official State Gazette published Royal Decree 4/1987 dated November 13, whose attachment nº 2 literally quotes the investment for the execution of the necessary works on the left margin of the Mundo river in Albacete, included in the Defense Program.
View of the side wall above the water from the left wall.
In May 1987, after the municipalities affected by the floods held meetings with national, Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha and Segura Hydrographic Confederation authorities, asking for a defense plan for the basin of the Mundo river; road engineer Andrés Martínez Muñoz drafted the Mundo river left margin flood study, describing the serious floods periodically occurring in the plains of the Mundo river and its affluents.
Likewise, during the drafting of this study, a meeting was held at the request of the Directors of Planning and Agricultural Policy of the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha with RENFE and experts working for the Segura Hydrographic Confederation, where they point out possible actions to be undertaken by the different coordinated agencies.
On December 12, 1989, drafting of the Boquerón basin dam project and the Mullidar-Boquerón inter-basin canal began, and the works completed in January 1991.
Mullidar-Boquerón transfer, final segment, near the entry to the Boquerón reservoir.
The project was approved by means of a Ministerial Ordinance on July 24, 1992. Subsequently, on October 28, 1992, the General Directorate of Hydraulic Works called the public tender to award the reference works.
On June 11, 1993, the General Directorate of Hydraulic Works chose Variant 10.8 Solution, among those presented by the temporary joint venture (U.T.E. in Spanish) of FERROVIAL, S.A. and OBRAS HIDRÁULICAS Y VIARIAS, S.A. The prescriptive Construction Project was drafted in July 1993.
On September 24, 1993, the Area of Dams issued a favorably report about the aforementioned project, with some recommendations to be taken into account during the construction phase.
Finally, on November 26, 1993, the works were finally awarded to the aforementioned U.T.E.
The readiness for construction document was subscribed on January 25, 1994, allowing the works to start the following day.
During the development of the works, according to the evolution of compacted concrete techniques and to the recommendations of the Area of Dams, the benefits of introducing certain changes which would affect the dam's compacted concrete, as well as shrinkage joints, spillway, and the bottom drain were noticed.
On November 10, 1994, the Works Manager engineer requested authorization for drafting Amendment 1 to the project.
On March 10, 1995, the General Directorate of the Hydraulic Works authorized the drafting of the Boquerón basin dam and the Mullidar-Boquerón inter-basin canal. This document included changes to the concrete of the dam body, to the spillway steps and to the overflow basin.
Supplementary project:
On March 27, 1996, the Segura Hydrographic Confederation requested authorization to draft the Supplementary Works Project number 1 of the Boquerón basin dam and the Mullidar-Boquerón inter-basin canal. The drafting of this project was authorized on July 18, 1996, and it included several works mainly affecting urbanization of the installations.
The works were completed at the end of 1997 at a cost of 3,531,437.773 pesetas (21,237,132 euros).
Access
The access to the dam of the Boquerón from Albacete is realized following the described itinerary later: exit of Albacete in direction Murcia for the highway A-30; I turn aside in Hellín´s exit following the road CM-412 up to this locality; already in Hellín there takes the road CM-3213 towards Liétor. To approximately two kilometres and a half of Hellín´s locality there takes a detour put up signs to the right that goes up to the dam of the Kind of Boquerón. The total length of the tour from Albacete is of approximately 64 km.
Since alternative access describes the following itinerary: exit of Albacete in direction Murcia for the highway A-30; at a height of Pozo-Cañada, detour towards Pozohondo for the CM-3210; in Pozohondo the CM-313 takes up to San´s Pedro Rocks and from here, the CM-3203 towards Elche ; on having come to The Villarejo the CM-3213 takes towards Hellín and, spent Liétor´s locality, to approximately 27 km from the latter, there appears a detour put up signs to the left side that goes directly up to the prey of the ravine of the Kind of anchovy. In this second alternative, the total length of the tour from Albacete is of approximately 106 km.
The location of the reservoir can be seen in the following map:
Characteristics
| SITUATION OF THE DAM | |
|---|---|
|
Province
|
Albacete |
|
Municipal territory
|
Hellín |
|
Basin
|
Boquerón |
|
Hydrographic basin
|
Segura |
|
BASIN DATA
|
|
|
Surface of the hydrographic basin of the Boquerón watercourse
|
47.00 km² |
|
Maximum height in the basin of the Boquerón watercourse
|
1,038.00 m |
|
Surface of transvased basins of the Mullidar and the Ríncón del Moro watercourses
|
200 Km2 |
|
Maximum height in the transvased basins of the Mullidar and the Ríncón del Moro watercourses
|
1,330.00 m |
|
RESERVOIR DATA
|
|
|
Surface of the reservoir at the Maximum Normal Level (MNL)
|
3.01 ha |
|
Capacity at Flood Level Project (FLP)
|
9.32 hm3 |
|
Spot height of the MNL
|
565.30 m |
| DAM BODY | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Type
|
Gravity | |
|
Top spot height
|
606.30 m | |
|
Maximum height from fundaments
|
55.50 m | |
|
Top length
|
299.0 m | |
|
Minimum height of the dam bed
|
557.8 m | |
| CHUTE | ||
|
Total number of chutes
|
1 | |
|
Profile
|
S-shaped stepped lip | |
|
Adjustment
|
Front side, with weir of fixed lip | |
Gallery. View of the stepped segment on the right side(the reservoir is located on the left side)
Purpose
The purpose of the use is the control of floods involving the Mullidar, Rincón del Moro and Boquerón watercourse trying to limit the effects of the floods, which historically occurred in the Tobarra, Hellín and Isso plains.
The Tobarra population is protected by the construction of a transfer channel leading most waters belonging of its basin to Boquerón basin, while the populations of Hellín and Isso are protected against their own and transvased floods by the dam of the Boquerón basin.
As a consequence of the lamination of floods produced by the dam, there is a reduction of the peak in the hydrographs entering through the Mundo river to the Camarillas reservoir, allowing this river to transfer its floods to the Segura river with a reduced flow, which represents the beginning purpose of the General Defence Flood Plan in the Segura basin.
View of the top from the right margin
Territorial and Administrative Context
Physical features of the basin.
The Boquerón riverbed begins after the confluence of ravines and streams draining the Peña Losa, Umbría del Rincón and Peñarrubia mountains. Its basin, up to the dam's closing point, has a surface of 47 km². On the eastern side, it borders with the Romeral and Montesinos mountains separating it from the headwaters of the Pepino watercourse; to the south and the west, the Quebrados mountains mark the boundary with the Mundo river basin; and the Peña Losa and Umbría del Rincón mountains to the north separate it from the endorheic area of the Heruela riverbed.
The basin presents a mountain morphology, where elevation varies from heights of more than 1,000 m in the Peña Losa and Umbría del Rincón mountains (the highest point is at 1,038) up to a height of 558 m at the site of the dam.
The longest watercourse is 12.4 km long with a slope if 1.8%, starting at 780 m and ending, at the dam enclosure, at 558 m.
To the total contributions to the Boquerón basin, we must add the diverted waters of the Mullidar and Rincón del Moro basins through the Mullidar-Boquerón diversion channel, as the flood flows of these riverbeds drain into the Boquerón reservoir through that same diversion channel.
The basin including diverted waters has a surface of 200 km², although there are semi-endorheic areas which are deducted for the hydrologic study, which leaves an effective basin of 121 km².
Perspective of the reservoir basin. The tail end is located at the foot of the mountains which can be seen in the background (Peñarrubia mountain).
The diversion channel, which has a rockfill cladding, has a length of 9.6 km and can bring in a maximum flow of 190 m³/s.
Environmental information.
The Boquerón reservoir has a temperate Mediterranean climate. Its climate favors physical erosion processes of certain intensity (torrential rains, frost, etc), thus, creating certain typical morphological features.
The water network of the area does not have important hydrographic arteries but is limited instead to just seasonal watercourses, ravines and streams.
The natural vegetation belongs to the sclerophyllus formations of leathery, evergreen leaves, a defense against the arid environmental conditions of the area.
Potential vegetation would be made up of holm oaks (Quercus rotundifolia), with a shrub border of groves. The current vegetation is grouped in three natural units: fields, thickets and trees.
The fields are grassy areas made up of leguminous and grassy plants, associates with different shrubs: thyme, rosemary, etc. They frequently grow on old esparto fields, currently abandoned, creating the esparto-fields unit.
Thyme, gorse and rosemary thickets occupy a large area of the basin, especially on sharp slopes which are not suitable for agricultural exploitation. Cattle feeds there.
Holm oak and pine forests appear at the highest basin elevations, generally surrounded by thicket and representing the basis for development of the animal community.
On cultivated land, it is possible to find groups of larks, passerines and finches, as well as many corvids.
The plant units support an important bird wildlife, as well as many mammals common in Spain: rabbits, hare, etc.; nevertheless, the predominance of cultivated land over natural vegetation translates into the wildlife characteristics of that unit.
Geology and seismology.
Geology
The area occupied by the reservoir of the Boquerón dam is in the south of the province of Albacete, near the provincial boundary with Murcia. From a geological point of view, it is a transitional area between the two most representative structural units of the Iberian Peninsula: the Iberian System (in the north) and the Pre-Baetic zone of the Baetic System (in the south).
The tectonics of the zone is complex due to the transitional nature that defines it, and it is characterized by sudden changes of direction in the different formations. In the area surrounding the reservoir, predominant structures are in the NW-SE direction, such as the Peña Losa, Umbría del Rincón and Los Quebrados mountains.
Auscultation. Weather station located next to the dam access.
The lithology of the reservoir area soils is described below:
- Jurassic
Jurassic soils are the predominant materials in the reservoir and in most of the catchment basin. The lithological types observed are dolomites, marls and limestone. It is fundamentally a monotonous series of secondary rombohedric dolomites(late dolomitization or much later than deposition) representing the main topography and showing limestone and oolitic limestone disappearing on the sides through dolomitization. - Cretaceous
The Cretaceous is scarcely represented; it is possible to find it far from the dam site. The outcrops from this period are a conglomerate base segment and a segment above of multicolor sands and clays. - Tertiary
Tertiary materials are identified in three formations in the reservoir area: polygenic conglomerates, biocalcarenites and white marls. - Quaternary
Different kinds of Quaternary materials have developed on top of the aforementioned series, among which we should point out alluvial, alluvial fans and colluvial materials. The main feature of all these deposits is to be frequently encrusted in more or less continuous carbonated crusts of different thickness.
The Boquerón reservoir enclosure is made up of Jurassic brecciated karstified dolomites. Nearby, there are two arched overriding edges downstream and two upstream. These are indistinguishable on the surface, except when the Jurassic dolomites cover stratigraphically late geological materials, as established by morphological criteria.
Seismology
The Boquerón reservoir is located, according to the Seismic Resistance Construction Regulation (NCSE-02), within an area with a basic seismic acceleration of 0.07 g, in the municipality of Hellín, which is the town nearest to the dam.
Among the equipment installed in the dam, there is a seismograph to detect any seismic activity that could occur in the area. No relevant event has been recorded since its installation.
Auscultation. Detail of a three-dimensional joint regulator.
Plans
- Dam plant.
(602 KB) - Elevation above the water and under it of the dam. (226 KB)
- Sections of the dam. (299 KB)
Ortophotographs
Mullidar-Boquerón transvase. External view of the segment in the false tunnel.
Situation
The dam of the Boqduerón places in the actions of defense of the left margen of the river World, inside the General Plan of Defense against Avenues of the Cuenca of Segura.:
The ravine of the Kind of anchovy places in the zone Suroriental of the province of Albacete. It is a short riverbed, of approximately 10 km, which passes fitted between the saws of The Quebrados and Peñarrubia up to joining to the ravine of the Pepino, continuing the wealths for the above mentioned riverbed other 6 km before ending in the river Mundo, to approximately 13 km from the entry in Camardillas´s reservoir.:
The dam of the ravine of the Kind of anchovy is to the west of Hellín´s locality, to approximately 5 m of distance. The areas occupied by the glass belong to Hellín´s municipal area.:
U.T.M. coordinates:
Reference system ETRS89. Time zone= 30
X=607.887
Y=4.264.512
