It was proposed to protect settlements from floods by a pop-up dam-road

The area turns into a fortress surrounded by a waterproof palisade

Pavel Tabunov, an inventor from Lytkarino near Moscow, patented an original way to protect residential and industrial areas from flooding. Its development is a road that will turn into a dam during floods.

The pop-up road invented by the Lytkar residents consists of floating sections. They are interconnected and attached with the help of hinges to reinforced concrete abutments dug into the ground.

In the absence of flooding, the sections lie on the ground, forming a roadway for vehicles. A reinforcing concrete coating was applied to the upper planes of the road, and a waterproofing membrane forming a continuous tape was applied to the opposite planes, the lower edge of which is underground, where it is attached to the bases of reinforced concrete abutments. Such a dam-road can be mounted along the perimeter of a territory threatened by flooding or along the shore of a reservoir, in those places where it usually overflows its banks.

As soon as the flood begins, the ends of the sections directed towards it begin to float, the higher the water rises, the higher the ends of the floating plates external to the protected area rise. The penetration of water into the territory is prevented by a membrane that protects the joints of the sections and the places of their contact with the ground. Thus, the road turns into a dam-fence.

In order for the “fence” to stand in a vertical position, sections of two types are used, the first, located on straight sections of the road, are rectangular (blue in the diagram), the second, inserted at the corners, are trapezoidal (blue). The second sections are inserted in pairs, so that when the dam is raised, they fold. The third version of the sections (light gray) is intended for laying at the intersections of a floating road with a regular one (gray).

Thanks to such a transformable dam, during the time of flooding, the protected area turns into a kind of fortress, surrounded by a waterproof palisade.