Lesotho Highlands
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project, a cooperative effort between Lesotho and South Africa, seeks to rejuvenate South Africa’s heavily populated and arid Gaucheng Province. It’s first phase began in 1992 and involved construction of the 180 m (590.5 ft) high Katse Dam, part of the Orange (Sequ) River system in Lesotho. The dam, finished in 1998, supplies water to South Africa’s Vaal river system via a water transfer tunnel and two delivery tunnels.
In 1991, LHPC contracted The Robbins Company to supply three new tunnel boring machines (TBMs) for the longer water transfer tunnel and one rebuilt TBM for the delivery tunnel. Two other TBMs from Atlas Copco and Wirth also participated in the dig.
