Rope team inspects spillway over five days

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's rope access team - made up of 11 employees from multiple regions with various disciplines - completed an inspection of the Grand Coulee Dam spillway.

The volunteer group started at the top of the dam and worked their way down to inspect the overall health of the spillway. The rope access team inspected an area just under 10 acres and descended more than 12,000 feet of rope in five days, totaling 60 hours, said a Reclamation Facebook post this week.

The inspection at Grand Coulee Dam brought together Reclamation staff from several regions to take on the challenge in September.

Led by Ty Murray from Grand Coulee, the joint Ropes Access Team consisted of members from the Upper Colorado Region and the Columbia–Pacific Northwest Region's Boise office and Coulee Dam team to inspect the dam's spillways and river outlet works, the Colorado area's Facebook post read on Nov. 21.

The "work involved checking for spalls, calcium build-ups, and any cracks in the concrete - all while each inspector carried up to 80 pounds of equipment," they said. "Every rappel tested the team's technical skills and endurance, as they worked in limited daylight and changing weather conditions."

"Being on the spillway is a humbling experience," said one team member from the UCB Region. "It gives you a whole new respect for the Grand Coulee Dam's scale and the power of the Columbia River."