About Us

MD&A (Malcolm Dunstan & Associates) is a Firm of Consulting Engineers that has specialised in the design and construction of RCC (Roller-Compacted Concrete) dams for more than 25 years.

Dr M.R.H. Dunstan first suggested roller compaction of concrete for dams in September 1973¹ and was involved with one of the first full-scale trials of high-paste content RCC for a dam in 1975². 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 25 years MD&A has been involved with over 100 RCC dam projects, ranging in height from 9m (New Mill, near Truro in the Southwest of England) to 230m (Ta Sang in Southern Myanmar) and in volume from 4000m³ (Holbeam Wood near Newton Abbot in Southwest England) to 8.65M m³ (Ta Sang).

MD&A has been involved with the majority of large RCC dams in the Western World and with the fastest RCC dams built to date, e.g. Upper Stillwater, at which the average rate of placement was 125 000 m³/month, Olivenhain, 121 000 m³/month and Beni Haroun, 103 000 m³/month.

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

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