Kardzhali Reservoir
Dam in Kardzhali Province, Bulgaria
- 2 min read
- 2 chapters
Explore on Lably
ToursExplore Lably’s 3D toursGeography
The reservoir is located at an altitude of 331 m in the eastern Rhodope Mountains on the major river Arda, a right tributary of the Maritsa. In the western part it receives the Borovitsa, an important left tributary of the Arda. Its dam is about a kilometer west of the town of Kardzhali. Administratively, it lies in Kardzhali Province, within the territory of the villages of Brosh, Duzhdovnitsa, Enchets, Glavatartsi, Kamenartsi, Kokoshane, Pudartsi, Ridovo, Snezhinka, Staro myasto, Strazhevtsi, Topolchane, Zelenikovo, Zvanika in Kardzhali Municipality, and Suhovo, Ribartsi, Doyrantsi, Star chitak, Borovitsa, Kitnitsa and Avramovo in Ardino Municipality. It is accessible via the first class I-5 road from the town of Kardzhali.
Kardzhali Reservoir is an important tourist destination for fishing and various outdoors activities that support a local hospitality industry. Some of the landmarks along its shores include the horseshoe meander Zavoya and the ruins of the medieval Patmos Fortress.
Sign in to keep reading
One more chapter is free with a Lably account.
Dam
Most of the construction process took place in the period 1957–1963, however due to serious geological challenges construction works continued until 1976. It has a concrete arch–gravity dam, the only one in Bulgaria. The maximum height of the dam wall from the base is 103.5 m, the third highest in the country, and the length along the crown is 344 m. The dam spillway with a capacity of 3,100 m3/s is built directly next to the right abutment block of its wall and is equipped with 4 valves. The dam has two main outlets, built into the left and right diversion tunnels, which have a capacity of 880 m3/s. During the strengthening works of the wall in the 1970s, an additional tunnel outlet was built in the right slope with a water intake tower and a shaft with gate valves with a capacity of 1,670 m3/s.
Kardzhali Reservoir spans a territory of 16.4 km2 and has a catchment area of 1,882 km2. The projected volume is 532 million m3 but due to sediment accumulation it is estimated that as of 2001 the volume is 497.2 million m3. The sediment accumulation since has declined due to the reduction of mining activity in the area and the construction of the Plovdivtsi Reservoir further upstream.
The Kardzhali Hydroelectric Power Station is located in the dam wall. Following modernisation works in 2007–2010, its capacity was increased to 122 MW from the original 106 MW. The reservoir is also utilized to irrigation and industrial water supply for the industry in the town of Kardzhali.