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Show HMdDNiiDM PROJECT m r k mxn4lx "t- L rji v ,d-J- L i - M I n J f l , -'y", 1 1 v'F:r - r M 1 , -r i m I i-h;in 1 1 t-y ;; . I hi 14 i '.4. 'i I s . " , 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON !lME tltue late in lO.iG or early la frf 19J7 Lncle Sam will be able to 'C' J'-'i I say t0 tlie other nations: "It you y.-jl want to see one of the modern wonders of the world, come down fl into the southwestern part of my H country and take a look at a job V ts t,lat J've il,st finished on the Col- , I,., i. m orado river. ' And in saying that he won't be uttering any idle boast. For the completion of the Hoover aain nill mark the conclusion of one of the greatest engineering feats of all time, greater even than another of the triumphs of Uncle Sam, engineer, that of digging the Panama canal and when this gigantic mass of steel and concrete is finished fin-ished it will be the biggest structure of its kind in the whole world- Not the least part of Dncle Sam's triumph will be the fact that the dam and its appurtenant works will be completed in record time. When the contractors began work on April 30, 1931, they were to be allowed seven years in which to finish the job. That would have meant its completion com-pletion by April 20, 193S. Right now they are nearly two years ahead of schedule and it is estimated that at the present rate of progress the whole thing will have been done in six years or less. Impressive as are the statistical data connected con-nected with the Hoover dam, the average person cannot get an adequate idea of the immensity of the project from abstract figures alone. Most of us are poor judges of distance so it would mean little to sav that the dam will have a maximum height of 730 feet above its foundation rock, that the top of it will be approximately GOO feet above the level of the river and that it will raise the water surface of the river 5S4 feet. Rut let's get at it this way : if the Washington monument were set up alongside the dam and you stood on top of that monument, some one standing on top of the dam would have to let down nearly 00 yards of rope in order to pull you up to where he stood. Can you visualize 4,400,000 cubic yards of concrete? con-crete? Probably not. But if some one told you about a tower that was 100 feet square and rose two and a half miles in the air, you could get some idea of the amount of concrete that's going into the Hoover dam, the power plant nearby and the appurtenant works. That amount of concrete would build a standard paved highway, high-way, 1G feet wide, which would extend all the way from Seattle, Wash., to Miami, Fla. You'll admit that 10,000,000,000,000 gallons of water is a considerable amount of moisture. That means S0.OO0 gallons for every man, woman and child in the United States. That 10,000,-000,000,000 10,000,-000,000,000 gallons is the amount of water which the reservoir created by the Hoover dam will hold. They also figure it in acre-feet, an acre-foot being the amount of water that will cover one acre one foot deep. When this reservoir is full it will contain 30,000,000 acre-feet enough water to cover the whole state of New York to the depth of a foot. But enough of statistics for a moment in favor of some more general information about this gigantic project. The Hoover dam is being built in the upper Black canyon on the Colorado ' river about 25 miles southeast of I-as Vegas, Kev., where the river forms part of the Arizona-Nevada Arizona-Nevada boundary. The purposes of the project are flood control and general river regulation (for the Colorado has long been one of the most unruly and destructive of all the rivers in America), irrigation, silt control, domestic water supply and power development. For these purposes pur-poses the project calls not only for the construction con-struction of the huge dam and power plant in Black canyon but also the construction of the All-American canal in southern California. The total cost of the project is placed at approximately ap-proximately $105,000,000 divided up as follows: dam and 'reservoir, $70,000.01X1: All-American canal, $.')S.500.000 ; power development, $.".8,200,-000; $.".8,200,-000; and interest during construclion. $17,700,000. But' lest anyone think, since this is a federal proiect, that its construction means that many millions out of the pockets of American taxpayers, taxpay-ers, let it be stated at once that Uncle Sam's investment in it (in the form of congressional appropriations) will be repaid in full within the next 50 vears from the income derived from supplying sup-plying irrigation water and from the sale of power generated in the power plant, a huge structure of steel and concrete. 1.200 feet long, which will stand just below the dam. Although power development was a secondary consideration in planning this project, it promises prom-ises to become a very important one in the future because of the effect winch cheap power will have upon ruoderni.ing community and civic life in the Southwest. The plans for this power plant call for the installation of 15 turbines of 115,000 horse power each and two turbines of 55!(ioo horse power each with 15 generators of 82,500 kilovolt-ampore capacity each an. I two generators of lO.Ooo kilovolt -ampere capacity each The larger units exceed in size the largest yet manufactured, the S.'1.000 horse power turbines tur-bines and 7.500 kilovolt -ampere generators in : w 1 -zyTriJ . ' x ,A L At Vv-'w " ! - Jr? T i A1 A ST - --A ' r v a . V'-5yT, ! i t t r-Jy. 7 j4 ' im! ,4ij;?s. A , ' x the world-famous Dmeprostroy plant in Russia, s One of these mammoth generators will weigh I over 2,000,000 pounds, will measure 40 feet In diameter and stand 32 feet high. s This power plant will have a total capacity of tj 1,S35,000 horse power, or four times the amount f developed on the American side of Niagara Falls and nearly double the amount developed both at ft Niagara Falls and Muscle Shoals, even when the s latter reaches the peak of its capacity. It will ss be operated and maintained by the city of Los i Angeles and the Southern California Edison company, com-pany, under the general supervision of a director appointed by the secretary of the interior. The s city will generate power for the states of Arizona Ari-zona and Nevada, a large number of southern California municipalities and for the Metropoli-tan Metropoli-tan Water district, and the Southern California ' Edison company will generate power for company com-pany purchasers. y An essential part of the project is the con- struction of the All-American canal, so-called because it is entirely within the United States. It will begin about 15 miles northeast of Yuma, Ariz., where the new Imperial diversion dam will be built, and will connect with the present system sys-tem of irrigation ditches in the Imperial valley, a distance of about SO miles. At the same time, a 130-mile extension of this canal will pass east -of the Salton sea and carry water to the adjacent adja-cent Coachella valley. From the beginning of the All-American canal near Yuma it will pass through a ridge of shifting shift-ing sand and there the deepest cut will be about 100 feet deep. Huge siphons or culverts will be needed in many instances to carry the canal under numerous washes. Plans call for ten of these on the main line and 79 on the Coachella branch. Siphons will also be used to carry the water under the Alamo and New rivers. The canal is expected to cost at least $27,000,000 and bids will be asked soon by the bureau. Plans contemplate a maximum canal capacity of 15,000 second-feet. The Imperial dam, to be of the floating type, will be 1.700 feet long and will raise the river level 22. feet. The canal will provide Irrigation water for 850,000 acres in the Imperial valley and an additional 150,000 acres will be brought under cultivation by the Coachella extension. Some distance up the Colorado river will be located the Parker dam, intended both as a power plant and as a diversion dam. Designs for this hydroelectric plant are rapidly nearing completion. There, 205 miles directly across the state from Los Angeles, will originate the water supply for the Metropolitan Water district. The Parker reservoir will be located approximately approxi-mately 150 miles downstream from the Hoover dam and is a natural site for a diversion barrier. The first 113 miles extending west to Shaver's Summit will require heavy expenditure for construction con-struction and operation, as the line will make an ascent of 1,500 feet. Power from the Hoover dam will be used to operate pumping lifts. Although the Metropolitan Water district Is paying for the construction of the Parker dam by the reclamation bureau, the project will be of immense importance to the Southwest. Ultimately, Ulti-mately, it is proposed to build a power plant at the dam and then to extend transmission lines on down the river to the Imperial dam. using the power thus delivered to pump water for irrigation irri-gation purposes in the vast undeveloped area in Arizona. This project will be known as the Gila development. One unique and interesting phase of the gigantic gigan-tic Hoover dam project was the tremendous job of diverting the flow of the Colorado river before the construction of the dam could be started. To do this it was necessary to drive four tunnels, 50 feet in diameter, through the rock of the canyon walls, two on each side o' -r : : : .... I pel J I I lolC TP OF IAM t Ml 1 & 1 ' 1 4 r.SH soo ft), .ir i v, , . : i a y ii A 1 I. 1 ' f ' ' i . , - ! t ,j r v 1 jJSSSt--::::-'7 ...... . 6ix,(rV --.:-::. :.-.-.-,- v.f.-.--::--:.i setuHWr A L : Ms, ' l X , f ' 1. A recent view of the dam, taken from a point downstream. 2. Showing the site of the dam before construction con-struction began. Its height of 600 feet is more than twice the height of any concrete dam now In existence. 3. This picture was taken before tons of water began rushing through these diversion tunnels. 4. This is how they "pick 'em up and lay 'em down" at the dam. A motor truck is lifted like a child's toy by the 150-ton crane, the biggest In the world. 5. The first completed tower for transmission of power from the dam. It is 109 feet high and stands near Kingston camp. S the river and build a temporary earth and rock fill coffer dam to send 200,000 second-feet of water rushing through the tunnels which have a total length of 15,934 feet or three miles. After their use for river diversion, these tunnels tun-nels will be utilized in the project scheme as follows: After being plugged with concrete at locations approximately one-third their length below the inlet ends of the Inner tunnels and about midway in the outer tunnels, the two inner tunnels will contain 30-foot steel pipes connecting connect-ing intake towers in the reservoir with the penstocks to the power plant and the canyon wall outlet works and the lower portions of the two outer tunnels will be used for spillway outlets. out-lets. And these 30-foot steel pipes bring up again the phrase "world's largest" which must be used so often in connection with the Hoover dam. For they are the largest pipes ever constructed con-structed In the history of manufacturing. They are made by an Ohio company and because they are too big to be shipped by railroad from the company's plant in the Buckeye state, it had to build a fabricating plant near the dam. One length of this pipe. 12 feet long and 30 feet in diameter, is made from three steel plates, so heavy that only two plates can be shipped from the steel mill in Ohio to the fabricating plant near the dam on one railroad car. Two such lengths of pipe welded together comprise one erection section weighing 150 tons, which Is heavier than many types of railroad locomotives. And this is typical of the scale upon which everything Is being done at the Hoover dam. To tell of any detail of the work there is to deal In superlatives, for it is there that Uncle Sam. the greatest engineer in the w-orld. is working day and night, rushing to completion "the world's greatest engineering project." by Western Newspaper Union. J |