Learn about our Floating Bulkheads

Steel-Fab floating bulkhead gates consist of a series of sealed caissons with integral ballast chambers that can be filled with water or pressurized with air. The caissons are assembled on the impoundment and then the appropriate ballast chambers are filled with water to vertically orientate the bulkhead and moved into position in front of the corresponding spillway gate. The bulkhead is seated to the dam or piers once a differential head is created. It can also be move to an adjacent spillway bay once a balanced head condition is achieved. To remove the floating bulkhead the chambers are vacated with air allowing the bulkhead return to a horizontal orientation.