About
MD&A (Malcolm Dunstan and Associates) is a Firm of Consulting Engineers formed in 1981 that has specialised in the design and construction of RCC (Roller-Compacted Concrete) dams for more than 35 years.
Dr M.R.H. Dunstan first suggested roller compaction of concrete for dams in September 1973 ¹ and was involved with one of the first full-scale trials of high-paste content RCC for a dam in 1975 ². He was awarded a Travel Fellowship to visit the USA for three months in 1976 to study RCC for dams and he was the Project Engineer for a large CIRIA Research Project studying RCC in 1978/79, that was to lead to the construction of one of the first RCC dams in the World; Milton Brook. The dam started construction in 1979 but unfortunately was cancelled soon after the excavation had been started.
During the past 35 years, MD&A has been involved with some 130 RCC dams in over 50 different countries. The dams have ranged in height from 9 m to 285 m and in volume from 4000 m³ to 13 000 000 m³. Dr. Malcolm Dunstan is the longest serving member of the ICOLD (International Commission on Large Dams) Concrete Dam Committee and was the Chairman of the sub-Committee that drafted ICOLD Bulletin Nº126: ‘Roller-Compacted Concrete dams – the state-of-the-art and case histories’.
MD&A strongly believes in making the construction of RCC dams as simple as possible, because with speed will come quality and economy. The Firm has been involved with seven of the ten RCC dams at which the fastest average rates of placement have been achieved.
In 2009, Dr Malcolm Dunstan was voted to be one of the 60 most influential people (of whom, at the time, 23 were still alive) in hydropower over the past 60 years.
¹ DUNSTAN, M.R.H.
Author's introduction to 'Results of a thermocouple study in mass concrete in the Upper Tamar Dam' by DUNSTAN, M.R.H. and MITCHELL, P.B.
Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Part 1, Vol. 60, November 1976, pp.669-697
² DUNSTAN, M.R.H.
Trial of lean rolled concrete at the Tamar Treatment Works
Report to the South West Water Authority, June 1975