The Urft dam is a curved
gravity dam with its convex side facing upstream and an earth embankment (an
Intze Wedge) on the reservoir side that reaches to about half the height of the dam wall. It is situated around 6.8 kilometres, as the crow flies, west-northwest of
Gemünd, the northern part of the town of
Schleiden in Euskirchen district. The Urft Dam was built between 1900 and 1905. The overall plan for the dam was developed by Prof. Dr. Otto Intze from
Aachen and built according to the so-called
Intze Principle; Intze also led the construction. To build the dam wall a railway line was laid from Gemünd to the site to transport men and materiel. The barrage is made of
rubble stone composed of
greywacke and
slate that was quarried locally and rises 58.5 metres above its base (
Gründungssohle). At its crown, it is around 226 metres long and 6 metres wide, and is 50.5 metres wide at its foot. The Urft Dam was also the highest in Europe until the construction of the
Bober Dam in the
Giant Mountains of
Silesia in 1912. On its completion, the Urft Dam became the model for many other projects at home and abroad after
water management for
industrialization became increasingly important after the end of the 19th century. The trial impoundment of the river began in November 1904, its use in water management started on 26 August 1905. North of the Urft Dam and separated from it by the base of a narrow peninsula is the
spillway in the shape of an overflow weir with a maximum width of 91 metres which cascades down a total of 33 steps. Within the dam at an interval of 2.5 metres are vertical
clay-filled tubes that drain away the water that seeps into the dam wall. Several bottom outlet towers provide access to inspection walkways at two different depths that enable the state of Urft Dam to be checked. The lower inspection gallery runs along its base joint. From 1994 to 2000 the barrage was thoroughly renovated. Among other things, a problem with the uplift pressure was resolved. It was also given two new inspection galleries that were driven using
blasting techniques, which have a total length of 320 metres, are an average of 3.10 metres high and 2.40 metres wide, as well as new sealing and drainage and numerous measuring devices. The Eifel-Rur Water Board celebrated the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Urft Dam on 26 August 2005. Since the Rur Dam was completed, the Urft dam not only impounds water on its upstream side, but also impounds the waters of the Rur Reservoir (also called the
Obersee) on its downstream side up to a depth of 12 metres. == Reservoir ==