Huites Dam

Huites Dam, officially known as Luis Donaldo Colosio Dam, is located on the Rio Fuerte in northwestern Sinaloa, Mexico 130 km northeast of Los Mochis. The 162 m-high, hybrid concrete arch-gravity dam impounds a reservoir called Lago Huites or Presa Luís Donaldo Colosio and is owned by the Comisión Federal de Electricidad.

The construction of a dam on the upper Rio Fuerte was considered since the 1940s but the first detailed studies were not made until 1974–1977. Construction started in 1992 with the excavation of a diversion channel around the dam site and the implementation of a pair of cofferdams to protect the site from floods. About 485000 m3 of material was excavated from the site before construction on the actual dam could begin. Placement of the 2980000 m3 of concrete in the dam, hydroelectric power plant and spillway structures was completed in 29 months, with the workforce peaking at 2,671 in May 1993. Construction was completed in 1995 at a cost of roughly US$ 212 million. The dam's two generators were commissioned on 15 September 1996.

The impounded water behind the dam forms a reservoir with a capacity of 4.568 km3, of which 2.908 km3 is active capacity and 2.408 km3 is reserved for irrigation and power production. About 1.102 km3 are given exclusively for flood control. Floodwaters are released through a spillway on the south side of the dam, controlled by four 15.5 x radial gates. Water stored in the reservoir is used to provide irrigation to 89700 ha of land in the Fuerte River valley. The dam's power plant has two Francis turbines with a combined generating capacity of 422 megawatts (MW) and produces an average of 875 million KWh annually. At full capacity, the plant utilizes a water flow of 235 m3/s.