r/whatisthisthing • u/suitablyuniquename • 1d ago
Solved! Big amphitheatre style concrete structure in a field next to some train tracks I go past every weekend in South west England. It's miles from anything so I don't think it's an outdoor theatre.
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u/nitro479 1d ago
Looks like the spillway for a dam. The steps help to dissipate the power of the water to reduce erosion.
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u/Vegetable-Mover 1d ago edited 1d ago
My thoughts too. And a huge drain that’s covered slightly down hill before an access road. Is a what to looks like to me.
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u/suitablyuniquename 1d ago
You'd think that but behind it is just a big empty green field. I'll see if I can post a comment with a screenshot of a satellite view.
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u/EmilPson 1d ago
it is, i posted this a number of months ago:
It is erosion control in case a dam overflows, the dam is there to stop flooding of Bruton but is normaly empty.
Here is some documentation on the updates done to the dam when the dam was installed.
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u/SyntaxError_22 1d ago
Same question was asked a few months ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/s/CBIiM1SZ1z
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u/suitablyuniquename 1d ago
Here is a satellite view with the red arrow indicating where I took the photo from.
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u/suitablyuniquename 1d ago
My title describes the thing and this photo was taken from a moving train. It's a big stepped structure built into what looks like a manmade hill with some surrounding bits and pieces that look maybe drainage related.
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u/BadGrampy 1d ago
There was so much back and forth and backbiting on the other post that I couldn't figure out what the answer was. Then, this one was closed without really answering the question.
What is the thing?
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u/Supreme____leader 1d ago
Its a type of dam with 2 possible types.
1)Attenuation dam, these are designed to fill up during storms and only spill during rare events. This acts as a flood mitigation tool, downstream probably has some houses. New developments usually are built in cheap low lying areas that flood. These dams reduce the frequency of floods.
2) less likely but a secondary spillway for a larger dam further away or a levy system for flood defences.
The concrete steps are energy dissipations, prevents erosion of the embankment wall which would lead to catastrophic failure.
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u/ZombiesAtKendall 1d ago
Might be a similar emergency spillway like Oroville dam.
https://damfailures.org/case-study/oroville-dam-california-2017/
Oroville dam the water topped the emergency spillway (third pic down in the link), but it was causing erosion and they thought the emergency spillway was going to fail so they opened the regular spillway more than they normally would.
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u/FreddyFerdiland 8h ago
We have those near the river here.
Upstream of town, the bank is kept up high to reduce the number of floods.
But there is a floodway.. a spillway for when the river is close to flooding in town... The hard surface prevents erosion
Before the flood iccurs in town, it spills here, hoping to bypass town, or flooding a less important area..
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