Loskop Dam Wall

About Loskop Dam Wall

The Loskop Dam Wall is an iconic engineering structure located on the Olifants River near Groblersdal in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Originally built by hand between 1934 and 1938 to mitigate widespread unemployment during the Great Depression, the concrete structure underwent a major raise in 1979 to reach its current height of 54 meters and a crest length of 506 meters. The wall is highly regarded in structural engineering as the first dam globally to utilize the innovative Roberts splitter system, a series of 6-meter-high concrete teeth built along the spillway to divide overflowing water into colliding streams, safely dissipating the immense kinetic energy and preventing erosion at the base.

Today, the dam impounds a reservoir with a total capacity of roughly 362 million cubic meters, acting as the primary water source for a massive 480-kilometer network of canals that irrigates over 16,000 hectares of local agricultural farmland. Situated within the Loskop Dam Nature Reserve, the wall can be viewed via the N11 national road near the Kranspoort Pass, making it both a critical infrastructure hub and a prominent regional landmark.