…In the last 100 years, over 18 feasibility studies/investigations on various development prospects on the Nile River in general, and the Blue Nile River basin in particular, were conducted… The Land and Water Resources of the Blue Nile Bsin”, prepared by the Department of State, Agency for International Development, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation. The eight-volume, 1,500 + page document is broken into a Principle Volume (The Blue Nile Report), Appendix 1 (Plans and Estimates (2 volumes)), Appendix 2 (Geology), Appendix 3 (Hydrology), Appendix 4 (Land Classification), Appendix 5 (Power), and Appendix 6 (Agriculture and Economics).

… Discusses the roles played by leaders whose power and influence contributed to the realization of the GERD. Some of them were not directly engaged in the actual GERD construction program but will be discussed here to document their contributions that led to its realization…Emperor Haile Selassie, Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi,Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed. GERD Executives and Leadership (Mr. Alemayehu Tegenu, Dr. Seleshi Bekele, Dr. Miheret Debebe, Engineer Azeb Asnake, Engineer Asheber Balcha). GERD Program Managers (Engineer Simegnew Bekele, Engineer Kifle Hora). The GERD Negotiation Technical and Legal Team. The 20,000+ employees who directly worked on the construction program.

…Even though a couple of contract modifications were made on the contractor’s role, the scope of the work did not change. Per the contract, the program was a turn-key contract expected to be completed in 2017 with early power generation scheduled for 2015. The Gantt chart below depicts the program schedule based on the initial (2011) and revised (2018) baselines.
In the initial 2011 baseline, the program had the following milestones: 2010 – Contract Signature; 2011 – Groundbreaking; 2013 – diversion; 2014 – Beginning of Stage One filling; 2015 – Saddle dam; 2015 – Early Power Generation; 2017 – Completion of the components of the program and operation of all 16 turbines.

…According to the published report by the prime contractor, one of the quality control tasks performed was on the quality of the RCC ingredients.
The program team had a lab in which it studied and tested the optimized RCC mixes for different areas of the dam including three classes of aggregates, crushed rock from gneiss-granite quarry: <8mm (sand), 8-20 mm, and 12-50 mm, and two types of cements: Cement contents vary through the cross-section of the dam (CEM I 42,5 LHHS (Portland Low Heat of Hydration and High Sulfate resistant, and CEM IV-A 32,5 R (Pozzolanic cement)).
Quality tests during RCC production included VeBe time, air content, fresh density, and in situ density. Quality control of placed RCC involved core drilling after three months from laying and included: density, compressive strength, direct tensile strength (on parent RCC and joints), joints cohesion, friction angle, and permeability.

…The GERD program is made up of several moving components, some of which can be controlled by the program owner while some are outside their control and need to be managed closely. The scope of the program was modified/updated/changed a few times resulting in a corresponding change to the cost, schedule, quality, risk, procurement, and stakeholders contributing to the complexity of the integration work. The GERD program involves several foreign stakeholders with various degrees of power and interest (influence). These stakeholders include the riparian countries (their populations and governments) and the international community. Executing the program while dealing with these forces has not been an easy task.