Under certain situations where horizontal seams of weaker material are detected below a depth of relatively competent rock and if it is decided to found the base of the dam on the rock below weak seam, the current practice of extending the triangular profile right down to base proves to be uneconomical both in terms of cost of excavation and quantity of concrete. In such situations for realistic assessments it becomes imperative to study the effect of foundation block having seam, on the behaviour of entire dam structure. With a view to assist the design of such dams, results of plane strain elastic finite element stress analysis for a typical Bargi dam in Madhya Pradesh, India, where a horizontal seam of weaker material expected in the fou...