Dr. Lelio Mejia is a Senior Principal with Geosyntec Consultants in Oakland, California, and leads Geosyntec’s Dam Engineering Practice. He is a registered civil and geotechnical engineer with over 35 years of experience. His main fields of expertise include dam engineering, soil liquefaction, earthquake ground motions, soil-structure interaction, and soil improvement. He has been a consultant and project engineer on various aspects of dam and heavy infrastructure engineering for numerous projects worldwide, including 15 major dams, and has served on multiple expert review boards for various dam projects. He was project manager and chief engineer for the design of the Borinquen Dams of the Pacific Access Channel, a key component of the Panama Canal Expansion Project, and was design engineering manager during the construction of Dam 1E.
Dr. Lelio Mejia will present an overview of the Panama Canal Expansion Project and of the dams that form the new Pacific Access Channel, known as the Borinquen Dams. The expansion project has approximately doubled the Canal’s capacity and allows the largest cargo and passenger ships in the world to transit through the historic waterway. Dr. Mejia will describe the site geologic and seismic setting, the foundation conditions, and the design concept for Dam 1E, the largest of the Borinquen Dams, and will present highlights of the construction of the dam and its key features.
Lindsay Walton
lwalton@ucsd.edu