| OCR Text |
Show Glen Canyon Construction Ahead of Schedule Touring Press Group Told at Conference PAGE, ARIZ. An extensive press tour of Glen Canyon, including in-cluding facilities of the government govern-ment city of Page, Merrltt-Chap-man & Scott, prime contractors, and that of the construction site was staged on Thursday, Feb. 19, prior to the formal dedication of the Glen Canyon Bridge a $4,000,-000 $4,000,-000 fete. In addition to an extensive tour of nil the facilities in connection con-nection with the Glen Canyon Dam nd its construction aspects, as-pects, a press conference with representatives of the Bureau of Reclamation, prime contractors, and Klewit-Judson Pacific Murphy, Mur-phy, contractors for the bridge, was conducted on the eve of the bridge dedication. Included on the tour was a trip across the footbridge, erected erect-ed by the contractor to facilitate construction while the highway bridge was being built; a trip through a two-mile access tunnel tun-nel from the rtm of the canyon to the river bed, 700 feet below; a tour of the aggregate plant, located lo-cated five miles from the dam site; a trip into the water diversion di-version tunnels, a tour of Page, and a tour of the construction area, at the river bed. Growing City Pf;ge Is a city with a population popula-tion of approximately 4500 residents resi-dents at the present time, the press group was told, and facilities facili-ties have been planned and worked out to accommodate nearly near-ly 12,000 people expected at the peak of construction acf'vity. The city of Page has ai'ually been built by the Bureau of Reclamation Rec-lamation and because It Is a government city schools to accommodate ac-commodate the population are presently under construction, also by the government. Taking Into consideration the development of Page, the contract con-tract of $108 million for the dam, $1 million for the bridge, plus construction of roads by the Bureau Bu-reau and all the other facilities In the area brings the total expected ex-pected expenditure at Glen Canyon Can-yon to an estimated $325 million dollars, Wylle said. Wylle also Indicated that costs of cutting a roadway down the face of the canyon wall was con- Bidered before the two-mile ac- cess tunel was finally decided upon and constructed. The tunnel tun-nel will be used at the present time as a access road for the dam construction, and will aerve after Its completion as a supply route to the power plant. Initial Outlay R. A. Bacon, superintemk-r.t of construction for the prime contractors, con-tractors, stated that approximately approxi-mately $10 million was spent to establish the company's power facilities and operating plant on , the rim of the canyon before construction con-struction work on the dam was undertaken. Several target dates have been set up by the contractor and the Bureau. Present target date for the beginning of the pouring of concrete for the dam is November Novem-ber of this year. Bacon pointed out that the company is eight or nine per cent ahead of schedule sched-ule at the present time and if construction continues at the present pace, pouring may begin as early as August of 1959. Waters of the Colorado River to fill the basin will begin backing up prior to the completion of the dam and Wylle Indicated that a date of June 1962 has been set when th" 'am Is expected to be approxii. . .y 350 feet high. At this time waters will be turned into the dam storage basin while the remainder of construction is completed. Completion date for the dam Is May, 1961. Facilities Comparison Facilities of the dam for tourist tour-ist Interest and for maintenance will be primarily the same as Hoover Dam. A comparison of the two dams also reveals some Interesting information. It was pointed out that the working crew on the Glen Canyon Can-yon Dam is much less than at Hoover Dam. According to Bacon this Is owing to the use of much heavier equipment on the con struction work. Earth moving equipment Is capable of handling much more now than It did then. Wage scales were also compared. On Hoover Dam non-skilled labor drew a wage of 50 cents per hour. That compared to $2.36 per hour for common labor on Glen Canyon construction. Skilled labor la-bor draws much higher pay scales with electricians drawing as high as $-1.90 per hour. Of the present common labor force working on Glen Canyon Dam, approximately 17-21 are Navajo Indians from surrounding surround-ing tribes. The percentage Is approximately ap-proximately five to six percent of the total working crew. Common labor force at the present time, Bacor stated, Is 160 with a total labor force of yw. At the peaK or construction total labor force Is expected to reach 1800 plus an additional 300 to 350 laborers on sub-contracting work. At this time Page is expected to reach a population of nearly 12,000 people. Ice and Power Plrtnts Included In the Initial $10 million mil-lion output by the contractor to set up the operation Is a giant ice plant, one of the largest in the Intermountaln West, which will be used to cool concrete and control the temperature of the mixture as It is poured. There has already been erected a 17,000 kilowatt electrical plant lnclud- Ing 14 diesel driven generators, which supplies power for not only on-ly the dam construction facilities, but the city of Page as well; plus a huge batch plant for mixing the concrete for the dam, which will also be one of the largest In the Western United States. Aggregate plant for the dam. tvhlth is located five miles north .of the dam site in Wahweap Canyon, Just across the Arizona board into Utah, will, when completed, com-pleted, produce 75 tons of aggre-gate aggre-gate for concrete mixing per hour. Input in the aggregate plant will je 800 tons of rock per hour and a schedule has been worked out In ten minue cycles to include 30 tons at the aggregate aggre-gate plant, hauling to the batch plant, dumping and return ready for another load. Bacon was ashed "what is unique about the construction of Glen Canyon Dam?" In answer to this question he stated. "Nothing unusual for this type of construction." construc-tion." All in all, the only unique aspects as-pects of the dam construction is the overall size, it was Anally concluded. |
