Who gives a dam about America’s ageing infrastructure? SRG does.

Nearly 2000 US dams are listed as high hazard with the potential for loss of life as a result of failure.

Civil engineer SRG (ASX:SRG) has announced a partnership to make the dams stronger.

SRG has joined forces in a 50-50 joint venture with American construction giant Traylor Bros to target the dam strengthening market in the US and Canada.

In 2016, the Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimated it would cost $US60 billion ($75 billion) to rehabilitate all the dams that needed to be brought up to safe condition.

Some $US20 billion was needed to repair dams with a high potential for hazard.

SRG constructs world record capacity dam anchors – systems that mechanically fix structures to the ground to resist loads up to 25,300 kiloNewtowns or 30 times the pulling power of a large truck.

They hope their technology will prevent events like the Oroville dam catastrophe earlier this year which saw the nation’s largest dam crumble and trigger one of the biggest evacuations in California’s history.

“This is a significant step in the development phase of our strategy which includes entering the North American market as part of our global dam expansion strategy,” SRG managing director David Macgeorge said.

“We continue to put the building blocks in place to deliver our long-term strategy which is firmly on track and we remain focused on our vision of ‘Making the Complex Simple’.”

SRG has been in the industry since the 1960s, anchoring the Snowy Mountain Scheme in 1961.

SRG shares were steady at $1.38 on Thursday, giving it a market cap of $90 million.

Profits increased for SRG in the past financial year, up 25 per cent to $11.6 million.