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Show ' 1 ill ' '" ' ONE YEAR OLD The giant earth boring machine (mole) Is celebrating Its first birthday by continuing its drilling of a 18-foot diameter tunnel through the mountain east of Strawberry Reservoir. The mole Is about three miles deep In the mountain range where It will bore a 4.1 -mile long Water Hollow Tunnel. The project was begun be-gun In November of 1968 and Is progressing on schedule, according to word of project engineers. Mechanical mole continues 13-ft. diameter hole near Strawberry The rocket engines of the Apollo space vehicle contain some 40,000 pounds of nickel in alloy form. Nickel-containing fuel cells provide pro-vide electrical power. Company are constructing the tunnel under contract with the Bureau of Reclamation at a cost of $5,594,823, and intend to complete the project several months ahead of schedule. Water Hollow Tunnel, when completed wil lhave a diameter cf 10.5 feet and will carry water wa-ter from Water Hollow Creek to Strawberry Reservoir. The tunnel is the first section. A huge mechanical mole is celebrating its first anniversary about three miles deep in the mountain range east of Strawberry Straw-berry Reservoir. Drilling of the 4.1 mile-long Water Hollow Tunnel began in November of 1968. The 80-ton monster is leaving a hole through the mountain 13 feet in diameter. Palmer B. DeLong. Bureau of Reclamation's Project Manager Mana-ger of the Central Utah Projects Pro-jects Office at Provo, reported that the mole had made good progress although some drilling problems had been encountered. Recently the mole entered a 200-foot wide fault zone filled with loose, shattered rock from which considerable amounts of water flowed. Material falling from the top and sides of the tunnel temporarily halted the mole's progress. Steel braced rail spiling was driven to shore up the tunnel through the fault zone, while fallout material wa s removed from around the mole. Because the soft tunnel sides of the fault would not support the mole grippers at full pressure, pres-sure, the mole inched slowly through the fault zone, with hand labor accounting foi most of the progress. Drilling is now proceeding normally through sandstone and conglomerate which provides pro-vides adequate support for the hydraulic grippers. The grippers grip-pers braced on the sides of the tunnel hold the machine stationary while a hydraulic ram forces the cuttings head against the rock. After cutting about five feet, the mole is moved ahead on runners to obtain ob-tain a new grip on the sides of the tunnel. The mole Is now progressing at a rate of about 30C feet per week. Drilling of the tunnel is well ahead of schedule in spite of the probelms experienced. Completion Com-pletion of the tunnel, including a concrete lining, was scheduled sched-uled for January 1971. Boyles Brcs. Drilling Company and Gibbon.-- & Reed Construction |