Richard Hammond's Big! (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Austria's Mega Dam - full transcript

i'm in the austrian alps

driving one of the country's greatest

exports

the porsche 356 has its origins just

down the road from here it's one of my

all-time favorite cars and this is the

first time i've ever driven one

but this series is all about the world

of big and this episode isn't about what

i'm driving in

it's what i'm driving on



[Music]

this is the columbrine dam

one of the biggest dams in the world

and it can use this huge reservoir of

water to generate enough electricity to

power an entire city for a week

how do you make a wall

big enough and strong enough to hold

back 200 million tons of water and how

do you use that water to power hundreds

of thousands of homes

in an ins

here i go

i'm richard hammond



hello

and i'm on a mission to explore the

really really big awesome

top 10 list of insane things i've ever

been involved in doing this is number

one

and yes i know everything seems big to

me am i climbing into an engine i feel

like i've been shrunk

i'll uncover the incredible ways

engineers have supersized our world i'm

sure it's supposed to be this close oh i

looked over my shoulder i shouldn't have

done that

reveal that sometimes it's the tiny

things that make the titanic possible

stealing their power

i could not do this for a job

and meet the heroes who design

build

and live

big if i do it wrong are we all blown to

people maybe

i'm standing on top of one of the

biggest walls on the planet it's 200

meters high that's the same as 63 london

buses on top of one another two big

bends

two statues of liberty

125 horses

2099 big macs 111 llamas you get what i

mean it's really big

and i'm stalling for time

because i'm pretending not to be scared

i've done it again

big sometimes also means high hammond

and this is

really high

and not good at high

and downhill oh

yeah that is really high up

but all the time behind me just here

that's the wall

200 million tons of water there

a huge

battery cell potential energy

this isn't just a story about a big war

this is a story about how humankind has

re-engineered nature on an epic scale

using it to power the modern world by

turning water into electricity

i mean this is

really

really big

in fact the dam is so big the only way

for me to get a sense of the size of

this modern wonder and how it fits into

the landscape is from above

hello

that is a powerful lift

the director left his stomach up there

my pilot is peter hohenberger he's been

flying rescue missions in these

mountains for the last 16 years and

knows this part of the alps like the

back of his casually heroic hand oh that

is absolutely glorious

what a way to see it

you do get a sense of scale up here

you can also see why they chose this

exact location in the alps to build the

dam

engineers had to pick a spot where there

was plenty of rain and snowfall to add

to the water in a reservoir

but then they needed a big deep valley

to make a big deep reservoir they had to

hold enough water to make it worthwhile

not only that it had to have ideally a

narrow opening a single gap but they

could span with a single dam to contain

that water

he's not looking where he's going at all

he's just not paying attention i mean

something could have come the other way

a bird or something or another mountain

okay now we go lower

[Music]

you really get a sense of all that

weight that potential energy just being

held back waiting here to get on with

its job

and make power

[Music]

it looks so thin and it is

for its height this is the thinnest in

the world that's about as thin as you

can possibly make a damn that big

thank you you're welcome

the spectacle the scale and the forces

involved are no doubt appreciated by the

dam's chief engineer who i'm on my way

to meet i've just got to work out how to

get my new toy off his wall

right um

i don't think i'd turn this round here

i didn't think this through i'm gonna

have to i'll reverse

reversing sorry coming through

[Music]

i think it's up here

luckily for me the office is right next

to the dam it was originally built as a

base for the engineers in the 1970s to

withstand the extreme alpine blizzards

[Music]

but inside it's not quite what i was

expecting

today the dam attracts so many visitors

they've turned the office into a hotel

[Music]

wasn't me

[Music]

it wasn't me

chief engineer roman curler has spent a

lifetime building some of the biggest

dams in the world hi you're wrong hello

welcome to our world

right there

i want to know what's so special about

this one roman said because you've built

dams all over the world few countries in

turkey bulgaria in iran you know this

dam probably more intimately than

anybody else it looks so delicate it

looks it doesn't look like everything

it's relying on the shape the shape of

it then this this curve it's like an

arch if you turn it by 90 degree it

looks like that

the dam's arch shape means the force of

the water on the wall is transferred

into the mountains on either side so it

actually uses the power of the water

behind it to secure itself into the

valley it does this so well they were

able to make it very thin using far less

concrete in the process

so the load on it and from here you can

see that amount of water is pushing

against that

it's straining towel pushing into the

mouth

but the combined dam is not just curved

in one direction it's curved in two

horizontally and vertically transferring

the force of the water not only to the

mountains at the sides but also into the

ground

the forces exerted on the wall are so

immense roman and his team must monitor

them constantly 24 7 and today

i'm going to join them

hello richard come in this is our office

very nice we have a lot of measuring

devices here the dam is moving when the

water rises the dam is moving when the

it gets hotter or colder so it's we're

going to measure how much it's moving

yes we will measure how much it's moving

how much water is coming into the dam

yeah we carry all the

devices for us so you can get a special

checkhead

right

am i being set up here at all so i wear

this oh wait a minute it's an enormous

dam

and that's somehow relevant yeah but

that's very accurate put that where it

goes on my special magical jet i mean i

like kit as much as the next chat but

this one in this pocket wait why am i

the packers

because you have no experience we work

with our head and you work with

the muscles yeah so let's go after you

yeah you need to wear them over your

head i'll just carry stuff we're going

in the dam we're inside the wall

now we're going to the underground

in this lift being just lift yes

there's just a hotel left but it goes

oh secret flaws secret first yeah so

we're going below reception just keep

going down yeah cool

hello ladies

morning ladies hi come in

um

i think one has to step from the other

side

this is awkward

what are you doing here

just engineering stuff

we're going for the secret floors

different day

this is awkward all right have a nice

day have a nice day ladies

how deep is this

30 40 meters oh wow

next i get to witness the unimaginable

power of the water behind the dam

oh look it's denting it and i'm forced

to face my fear of heights

again

[Music]

oh we're not in a hotel now are we that

is different i'm with engineer roman

curler actually inside the giant

columbrine dam one of the biggest in the

world not only is it hollow turns out

it's also an enormous maze with two

miles of tunnels romans asked me to help

out with some vital inspections i think

he has to trust me what are we doing

there we're measuring the opening of

this block joint

so this is the gap between two of these

massive concrete blocks that make up the

dam the dam weighs four million tons and

is made up of 30 columns called blocks

each one 20 meters wide and up to 200

meters high and they move as the water

level and therefore the pressure on the

wall changes measuring these gaps

between the blocks known as block joints

is just one of 300 different

measurements that must be taken every

day and compared with previous readings

so that's 155.32

one five eight point nine one the dam's

collapsing get out save yourselves no

it means the dams moved yes a little bit

you don't seem alarmed no this is the

measurement we've done in may so four

months ago oh yeah but it was a very low

water level and the block joint was open

and now it's closed if the dam moves to

the upstream

these gaps are opening

and if the water increases the dam is

moving to the downstream and the gap is

closing

so you're not worried that they do move

a bit no the dam is breathing

not collapsing no doing what you expect

yes breathing yeah okay carry on

so the force behind the dam is enormous

enough to move the concrete blocks that

make it up and to show what else this

massive weight of water can do i'm

heading to a meeting with some ninjas in

the middle of the reservoir

right the power of water i've set up a

frankly

brilliant if perhaps overly elaborate

demonstration of something we probably

all know

but it's unlikely we've actually seen in

action i'm going to use this magnificent

rig and the help of my

terrifying assistants over there so

barrel lowerable platform cameras so we

can see what happens to it if we're all

ready

members of the austrian special forces

that we seem to have recruited can we

please lower the barrel into the water

as the barrel goes deeper there's more

water above it and a greater weight

pushing down on it so the pressure on

that barrel increases as it descends

oh 1.3 meters 1.6 meters 1.9

2.1 meters

oh wow well we've already gone it's

already it's denting it this is just

just water pressure doing this ruin it a

few meters and it's already squashing it

that's a 60 liter metal oil drum

being squashed and deformed at just a

few meters of water as we pass

five and a half meters it's bending

wildly out of shape

any messages from the royal society for

the protection of barrels

you can email

at

don't be ridiculous dot com

and this is at a fraction of the depth

at the very bottom of this reservoir

all that force acting outward

on that

thin dam wall

the water in this reservoir is 190

meters deep

that means a total pressure on the wall

equivalent to 1 million jumbo jets at

full throttle all pushing on the dam at

the same time

and roman has agreed to show me the one

place in this dam that's under more

pressure than anywhere else

so now we'll take you deeper into the

dam deeper into the dark yes how far

down do we get to the very bottom of the

bed really yes all right i'm interested

the dam is so big getting to the bottom

means climbing down 800 steps

very steep steps this would be a long

fall

oh i can see water coming out of the

wall down there

i don't want to be rude

about your damn mate but

it's leaking really badly this is not

bad news that's working perfectly it's

all about uplift pressure

uplift pressure happens at the base of

the dam where water pressure is the

highest water from the reservoir is

forced down into the bedrock and then

pushes up on the dam from below

why is upwards pressure such a problem

because it would heat the dam with

enough pressure it could lift the dam

itself yeah we have to relieve it we

release the water

and you see that you release the

pressure very fast

so if we open it totally

you see there's only a dribble of water

creating that pressure it's not a lot

yeah this small amount of water causes

the upper pressure is that now open to

what was that water is has that bit of

water there

come from there yes it comes from there

and this small amount of water is coming

under the dam yes i'm going to there so

if it lifts it could it

you know if it's too high the upward

pressure but it isn't

the reason it doesn't topple over is

down to well taps 600 of them positioned

throughout the base of the dam

right so i should be glad that it's

leaking yes

i can demonstrate this uplift thankfully

i remembered to bring a bit of wood some

marbles and the tupperware box with a

hole in it

uplift pressure the ability of water to

lift millions of tons of dam off the

ground and destabilize it i have a

demonstration here this is my dam

this behind it is the reservoir and

these marbles are the

water

some of which has gone where i wanted it

right let's stack that in there so that

is the dam

holding back the water

that's how it works now immense pressure

because of the height of that water if

some of that water just a little tiny

bit of it as the dam heaves forwards

under that pressure gets underneath the

dam

and pops up

[Applause]

it destabilizes it it's as simple as

that

to keep the dam stable not only do roman

and his team of engineers need to

relieve uplift pressure they also have

to check that the structure's connection

to the mountain is rock solid

and that's what i'm going to look at

next

gotta go and meet a man called thomas

who is well as well as working at the

dam he's a very keen mountain climber so

he skips about this place like a

mountain goat i'm gonna meet him down

there

in some sort of cave

and

he's arranged for me

as a special treat

the opportunity to abseil down there

it's the kind of thing he loves doing so

he set up ropes people to help me

everything i need

but

i mean

i think he's misunderstood the meaning

of the word treat

really

that's not a treat i mean this is

like you know myself definitely helmet

what difference is that going to make

there we go too tight oh no oh i'm going

enough

okay that's you ready to

go oh god

this is going against

everything in my

yep

yep i'm not looking down i'm not looking

oh good god

[Music]

oh i can't keep this up that's not

actually me i well i bottled it i really

really don't like heights it actually

went something like this

[Music]

well done

oh that's uncomfortable

okay

let's dive with that

hello hello

come to me climb up

what are you thomas

do what

clyde

up there

yeah

hello

fear of heights or not it appeared there

was no way of ducking out of this one

come to me

okay

okay

oh this is just stupid

ah

hello thomas hello

hello

very unhappy thomas

thank you

right

and you go

didn't work

totally didn't work

what a day out you're giving me thomas

um

[Music]

in the 1950s engineers first dug out a

cave here to test the strength of the

rock and check it was strong enough to

hold the dam so as caves go this is an

important one they had to make sure that

the rock was the right strength to hold

the dam up that's how an arch damp works

it relies on the strength of the

mountain so they drilled this hole they

lined it with concrete they put inside a

massive machine that hydraulically

embraced against the side and they

decided yeah the rock is strong enough

we can build here if it hadn't been

that damage we see it would not be out

of there now

i think i now live in a cave

because the alternative is going back

down

the steps of terror

i'll go with devolving use of my eyes a

bit

don't worry

if i see you in the next scene i've got

after satisfactorily testing the rock on

one side of the valley it then took 800

workers six years and nearly four and a

half million tons of concrete to build

this enormous structure and after all

that work and 85 million pounds they

discovered they'd made a colossal

mistake about 40 years ago when they

finally finished the epic task of

building

all of this and started to fill the

reservoir behind it they noticed small

leaks appearing

not a good moment and probably not a

good feeling either

they investigated it and it turned out

that the rocks in the mountain on this

side was slightly stronger slightly

stiffer than the rocks in the mountain

on this side which meant an imbalance

and if there's one thing you want in a

dam especially one of this shape and

this record-breakingly thin it's

symmetry they didn't panic and tear it

all down they thought about it and

decided to build a supporting structure

think of it as a bit like a second dam

right at the base of this one

and i'm standing on the top of that

structure right now

it might look a bit like your local park

but underneath this grass and these

trees there's a second dam reinforcing

the base of the original wall it took a

decade to build cost 140 million pounds

and you wouldn't even know it was there

next

please really be careful

more measuring obviously

that's probably bad three two one and

the floodgates open

awesome

[Music]

i'm in the austrian alps at the

columbrine dam one of the biggest

hydroelectric dams in the world to find

out how a single wall can hold back

hundreds of millions of tons of water

there are around sixty thousand dams

worldwide and when things go wrong the

results can be devastating and even

fatal which is why head of safety eric

wagner takes his job very seriously

the responsibility for the safety sits

down on your shoulders does it weigh

heavy

goal we are after is to have such a

serious uh supervision of movement and

then stresses strain and whatever you

find within the concrete

that when

things start going bad

we see it in advance and we

have time to make the

the correct reaction

to avoid disaster eric and his team are

constantly monitoring the dam's

movements taking 300 tiny measurements

every day one of the most important is

to check how much the top of the dam

moves and it's taken using a very long

but surprisingly simple device

a pendulum it's not new i know galileo

spotted them in the 1500s but their

application here today is perfect i've

got this piece of fishing line is

attached to the rail on the viewing

platform 160 meters above me any

movement in that at the crest of the dam

should be measured down here and as i'm

using gravity i've got an absolute so

you see i can track its movements with

this pen on my piece of graph paper i

mean it's a frankly brilliant

demonstration of the principle

i think the problem i'm having here

is because of this length of line

the wind is moving it about

so my pendulum system is pretty basic

and it turns out easily disturbed by

wind and a small television presenter

but this dam does have a pendulum which

is inside the wall to protect it from

the wind if not from me because look i'm

going in there now and it is actually

one of the most delicate instruments

they have

so richard now we are

nearing the famous pendulum chamber yeah

but this is one of the most sensitive

places concerning measurements so please

really be careful but go ahead

carefully opening the door it's that

and sensitive

quite good

okay if you do it twice then it's

perfect okay

come in

walking steadily not stamping

i'm guessing don't slam the door

the pendulum costs 20 000 pounds and can

measure even the tiniest movements at

the top of the dam without interference

from the wind it's just a

stiff steel wire which goes up 150

meters this is one of the main

informations if the dam is behaving as

we are expecting

eric has tasked me with measuring the

horizontal movement of the pendulum wire

using his high precision optical

instrument which he warns me is also

extremely delicate

one hand here the other way

you do know my reputation eric i'm not

entirely

reliable okay

on there like that be very careful

that's probably bad

you can take it and

fix it

on the wire just look through

oh and now inside should go with

something it's a graduated scale it does

i move it until the center line is dead

center of the wire

now this is measuring down to 1 100 of a

millimeter it's about 95 times thinner

than a single strand of human hair

58.94

today the reservoir is very full

we have here the reading when the

reservoir level was more or less very

low

00:27:16,799 --> 00:27:21,679
so it's moving due to the water load

it's moving downwards oh because this

one will have been taken when the dam

was when the reservoir was empty exactly

as the reservoir fills and empties over

different seasons the top of the dam

moves as much as 14 centimeters but if

there's too much water and the wall

moves too far the pendulum triggers an

alarm and eric must take drastic

measures

he'll need to release the pressure of

the water on the wall which is why at

the base of the dam is a huge valve a

massive emergency tap and today eric is

putting it to the test it only happens

twice a year and apparently it's quite a

spectacle which explains why news crews

have gathered to see it

oh wow big stuff

this looks significant this is a big tap

wow it's more or less the same you find

in your kitchen

yeah pretty much a little bit larger

yeah the outlet pipe is the last line of

defense to divert disaster an enormous

relief valve for the dam

at the end of this long pipe there's the

valve

right down there that's the one the

water ultimately comes out at the moment

this is dry water's up to there okay

right we'll better begin the process

so now we start the filling process if

water from the dam simply rushed into

the main pipe it would explode under the

pressure so the first step is to use a

smaller pipe to gradually fill the huge

chamber so that is now

filling this huge pipe with water

and that water don't forget

has been pushed into here by that huge

reservoir out there

no need to pump it i can now hear a

different sound starting

and that's the last of the air in the

top of the pipe being shoved out by the

water there's an escape valve up there

and you can hear it hissing

honestly it sounds a bit like the

plumbing in my house

if you run above it makes this much

noise

so it's familiar

and so now this valve is fully open

the last little dribble at the end

[Music]

the dams often age

it happens to us all

190 meters of water pressure right the

way through that is now effectively

connected to the bottom of the reservoir

and that down there has just become the

final tap

so now we get to see

the effect of that pressure we get to

see it in action the re-election starts

outside okay

when all of this pressure is turned into

philosophy

now i have been warned that lots of

people come to see this and they are

here that's quite a crowd this is it's

quite an event because that's a really

big tap

eric are we ready

where do we stand when this happens you

just stay here it's not dangerous

ten

nine eight

seven six this is fun five

five four three

two one

doesn't work the tap's stuck

[Music]

that is the effect

of 190 meters of water pressure bearing

down on the water at the bottom pouring

out

20 000 liters a second

traveling at 50 meters per second that's

the effect of that pressure turned into

velocity and it's awesome

[Music]

and a reminder that's because up there

right up there

that's all water

that's a solid wall of water 190 meters

high

that's an expression of what's happening

at the bottom that weight of water

exerting that pressure

turned into velocity

[Music]

and you can now see where it just heads

off into the valley

wouldn't have cleaned all of that off

won't it

you'll never have to dust down there

in a matter of moments it's built itself

well a raging river roaring down that

stretch of valley

and that's it

the end of an expression of power like

i've never seen

wow

honestly feel like i need to lie down

after that

next i follow the water on its epic

journey to the power station building

its speed tearing down in those pipes

where it's finally turned into

electricity

i'm stealing their power

[Music]

i'm in the austrian house exploring the

columbrine dam one of the biggest in the

world and i'm hitching another lift from

peter the pilot hello hello how's it

going

i've seen how this massive dam lives

breathes and works to hold back millions

of tons of water but this is a

hydroelectric dam so now i want to know

how it goes about its work turning that

water into electricity so ready for

takeoff yep

[Music]

the column right damp and the turbine

hall below but it feeds with water to

generate electricity can send that

electricity

across austria even into germany italy

they've got to think big with the

product as well as the project

the water from the dam courses through

huge pipes hidden within the valley and

it has quite a journey to make

22 kilometers through several mountains

dropping a thousand meters in height to

a power station at the foot of the

valley where it's turned into

electricity

and as the water makes that thousand

meter drop it gets faster and faster

the water now beneath us

towards the station down there

that's where it'll be turned into power

but meanwhile it's building its speed

tearing down in those pipes

if we haven't seen all that we've seen i

just think that's just some pipes

but now i know they're containing all

that energy direct and raw from that

reservoir and the dam

there's something so simple so elemental

about it it's just water and it's about

to be turned into power that can charge

your phone run your tv right now

okay

i had to congratulate you you've passed

[Music]

this is the malta power plant and it

produces electricity for hundreds of

thousands of homes

very nearly journey's end for the water

22 kilometers from the dam to here the

drop has increased the pressure six

times over as it makes this last right

turn into the turbine hole which is

where i'm going now right how do i get

into the turbine

this is where the magic happens

four giant turbines harness the raw

elemental power of the water hurtling

down from the dam

[Music]

one of the turbines has been shut for

maintenance so i'm being given a very

rare treat the chance to climb inside

and see its inner workings

so the water rolls in through each of

these six nozzles

deflectors in front aim it into the

right place to hit the buckets set this

wheel spinning 500 rpm sets the shaft

spinning

and from there they create electricity

responsibility for keeping the turbine

in tip-top condition lies with walter

staudaka and for today only

me

this is where it all comes together and

at this point it suddenly becomes about

absolute precision the precise design

and shape of these buckets enables them

to harness as much as 92 percent of the

energy from the water talk to me about

the splitter a bit in the middle how

much the splitter in the middle there

the the chat the water chat is cutting

into two pieces you know like a knife at

home it had to be sharp otherwise you

need a lot of force so i've got to

sharpen the splitter yes i've never said

that before here there's no running

that's the one put on your eyes and then

you start grinding up here here

oh my god this is right at the heart of

the machine

all the effort we've seen so far

hangs on what happens there

[Music]

there is a very good reason why the

buckets on this turbine wheel are this

shape if you had a single scoop the

water would come in here hit it turn the

wheel that's good but then some of it

would splash back and hit the bucket

behind that's inefficient this is about

controlling how the water gets out as

well as how it gets in with the splitter

in place water comes in hits it pushes

the wheel but then it's sort of scooped

straight out into

even streams it's efficient that's how

they get to 92 efficiency here the

reason this has to be sharp and why i've

just been sharpening it i can

demonstrate with this

here's my bucket my scoop here is the

splitter nice and sharp and here comes

my flow of water fresh from the dam

and as it hits

the splitter is dividing it between the

two sides of the bucket

and that's not bad i've lost some ping

pong balls but they've ended up pretty

much evenly distributed between the two

sides

maybe we've got 92 efficiency there

right we can reset and demonstrate how

it would work

with a less sharpened splitter right so

all i'm doing is turning this over

it's got a blunt edge it hasn't been

sharpened same process

switch on water coming all the way from

our dam

hitting the bucket at the very end

and it's it's a disaster

every ping pong ball

flying away is more water not being used

to push the turbine wheel you won't

stand a chance of hitting 92 odd percent

efficiency

and now we've got to tidy up their

turbine hole

sorry

above the turbine where the water hits

the buckets is the generator which

creates the electricity

and they're connected by a massive 25

ton metal shaft

[Music]

wow

i'm sitting directly above that turbine

beneath me

it's turning as the water pushes it

round this

is the output shaft

and that means the turbine has done a

very clever thing it's turned linear

motion of the water moving along into

rotary circular motion in the old days

that'll be a water wheel give you this

to grind corn

or even sharpened knives here they're

using it to make electricity and how

they do that is pretty simple

this is in miniature what's happening

here it's a bicycle dynamo line

if i persuade it to come apart

you'll see that

when your bicycle wheel

turns this shaft on the end

this shaft on the end of it is a magnet

magnet's a funny thing

move a magnet around a conducting metal

like copper

and it moves tiny particles inside it

electrons and moving electrons

that is electricity

and so if i reassemble

my little dynamo here

i'm going to see if i can use a bit of

their power to make my own

i'm stealing their power

so that is water from the dam

turning that gigantic turbine

to turn both the enormous generator

above and my tiny bicycle one here

and light this light

i mean it'll be a lot of trouble to go

for if that's all it did

it's on a bigger scale than this

and so we come to the final part of the

process getting the freshly made

electricity to homes all over europe and

this is the control room which makes

that happen

everything we've seen so far every drop

of water and of sweat if you like ends

up here this is the place where big

just got bigger the columbine dam we've

been looking at is there on this that

charts the whole network and as you can

see it's just one

remote corner in it that's how big this

network is and the water flows along the

pipes as we've seen to the turbines

these are the ones here one of which

i've just been in and ultimately the end

product

is they call it from water to wire

because it goes from water as we've seen

gathered behind dams like the cotton

right along the pipes

down to the turbines and then it leaves

here

on the wire and there is

there was and it's gone

turned into power

the current generated here passes

through these transformers into those

wires and from there is distributed some

of it into the local grid some of it

over the alps and beyond salzburg vienna

and even further and incredibly whether

for some reason to be a national

blackout in austria this site here has

the capacity to restart the entire

national grid

did say water was powerful stuff

the colon brine dam is the mother of all

batteries it doesn't just hold back 200

million tons of water it harnesses it

transforming its raw energy into the

electricity that powers a nation

this dam does big things but it does

them with a sort of grace

and elegance this beautiful shape people

travel just to look at it as it moves

and breeds and works with the water and

with the landscape

and the team of people beneath my feet

right now tending to its every move they

too are part of the same

vast machine that could still be here

hundreds of years from now generating

clean power to make people's lives

better

that really is big

[Music]

you