Show BIG ELECTRIC POWER PROJECT free press redding calif A quarter of a mile of tunnel has been dug in the big bend of the pit as a starter on the biggest power development ever undertaken der taken in the state or even in the west the mt shasta power company compan y is the name of the corporation that has undertaken to dig the tunnel that will be only feet less than seven miles win length and that will convey enough water to develop horsepower at the outlet work on the tunnel was commenced last fall a crew of men working at each end one hundred and fifty feet is the average of a months work the tunnel that has been driven so far Is only a header the forerunner of the main tunnel that is to come later tile the header is six feet wide and seven feet high the real tunnel will be twelve feet wide at tile the bottom the sides flaring outward so that at a height of ten feet the opening will ivill be fourteen feet wide from this point the tunnel will be rounded out so that the crown of the roof will be nineteen feet above the floor the tunnel will be little less in size than the ordinary railroad tunnel the length will be feet short of seven miles the seven mile tunnel will have a carrying carl capacity of miners inches of water on a grade of one foot in 1000 feet the projectors located inches near the mouth of deep creek but only will be made use of the outlet of the tunnel will be opposite the lumbering town of wengler approximately the immense volume of inches of water will have feet fall at that point the water is not to be used for irrigation purposes having been utilized in generating power it will be turned back into the channel of pt pat river this project is twice the size of the great gunnison river enterprise in colorado a government undertaking involving the digging of a tunnel feet long five and one half miles the pit river tunnel will be much larger than the gunnison tunnel carry more water and will be a mile a and nd a half longer the mt alt shasta power company has completed its surveys six men are working at each end of the tunnel and machine drills are used just when active construction work will be undertaken is not announced but it is an evidence of good faith that a quarter of a mile of a heading has been dug already W A cooper and R E johnson are the engineers H V gates who lives in hillsboro ore is the chi chief ef promoter he is interested in halt half a dozen power and light companies in oregon and idaho 0 it will be remembered that gates was in redding three years ago when the northern california power company contested his right to patent a stone claim near the intake of that tunnel now under construction gates lost in the redding lan doffice but the case is on appeal the cost of digging the seven mile tunnel building a dam digging the intake canal and installing a plant of a capacity of horsepower will run into the millions |