Kenneth D. (Ken) Hansen has been selected by the US Society on Dams (USSD) to receive its 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award. Ken Hansen is one of the most widely recognized authors, lecturers, and consultants on roller-compacted concrete (RCC) for new dams and dam rehabilitation in the US.
Ken spent nearly 37 years of his career working for the Portland Cement Association (PCA) and another 12 years with Schnabel Engineering. Since 2009, he has been an individual engineering consultant based in Greenwood Village, Colorado.
Throughout his long and productive career, Ken proactively engaged members of the technical dam building community to support his passionate pursuit towards the advancement of RCC and soil-cement state of the practice, both in the US and throughout the world. There are few other advances in dam engineering in the last 35 years that RCC has had on the industry in building new dams, raising of concrete dams and the armoring of earth embankment dams. Ken’s enthusiasm, optimism, and masterful creative efforts are highly regarded and regarded by his peers, as illustrated by the many awards for his contributions.
Hansen is the primary author of the book “Roller Compacted Concrete Dams”, the “Design Manual for Small RCC Dams” and the international publication “Soil-Cement for Embankment Dams”. His slide lectures on RCC and soil-cement now totals about 650 throughout the United States and 12 foreign countries. Ken’s consulting assignments total more than 100 on projects located in 11 countries.
One of Ken’s main contributions to the development of RCC has been to take education to the dam construction site. During his career, he organized two dozen RCC short courses or seminars in 13 states, which included learning from actual projects under construction.
Ken was selected as one of the 60 most influential people in the global hydro and dam business over the past 60 years by our readers in the special 60th anniversary edition of International and Water Power and Dam Construction magazine in 2009.