Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-09-24
THE PAINE BREAK.
Y0Lo COUNTY BUILDING A sUBsTAN-
TIAL LEyEE ACROSS IT.
A Thousand Yards of Embankment That
Will Cost Some Thirty Thou
sand Dollars.

A small army of men are engaged in
building an immense levee across tine
Paine break, on the Yolo side of the river,
about mile and half below Washington.
The work was ordered done by the Super
visors of Yolo county, and the contract let
to Samuel NJ. Montgomery, well-knoWn
contractor of Woodland, under whose I'M
mediate direction the north leVee on the
American river near this city, was built
number of years ago The cost of the
present undertaking will be in the neigh
borhood of $4,000, but the strip OF levee
will, il is said, be the strongest and most
formidable piece ever built on the river.
This was made necessary on account of the
sharp bend in the stream at that point,
where the levee, on account OF its weak
ness last winter, was swept away by the
force of the current.
A RECORD UNION reporter went down to
the break yesterday, and found large
number of men and teams busily engaged
in building the base of the levee. The dam,
composed of brush, sand-bags and piles,
that was constructed couple of months
ago, has become so solidly packed that it
turns the current of the river as effect
lively as if a levee were there, and at
present what water is on the other side
of the dam comes from sipage and back
water in the tules. There is, of course,
no current inside the levee, and the work
men are making good Roadway in filling
in behind the dam and getting founds-
ton for the new levee. The water in the
center of the break, where the main force
of men are now working is from ten TO
twelve feet in depth, and large amount
of sediment will have to be dumped by
the teams before the bed is filled to the
surface of the water
Gangs of men are working at both ends
of the break, and although the work was
commenced but week ago yesterday,
about $50 feet of the foundation on each
end is completed, leaving space of about
300 feet in the center yet to be finished.
The dimensions of the embenkment can
be imagined when it is stated that the base
is to be from $50 TO 200 feet wide and the
top eighteen feet in breadth. The top will
be about three feet above the old levee and
there will be a filling of about ten feet OF
earth on the sacks and brush that were
sunk to form the dam last spring. The
latter will be on the outside slope of the
levee and thus afford a great protection
against the washing of the base by the cur
rent of the river. The roadway, when
the levee is completed, will be just inside
the row of piles and almost as high.
Mr.. Montgomery says it will probably be
the middle of November before the work
is completed. About 20 600 yards of earth
will have to be hauled, and with fifty teams
working steadily he says that two months
more will undoubtedly see the undertaking
finished.
Yesterday there were 160 men and thirty
teams at work. To-day ten more wagons
will be put on, and when the foundation is
built across the crevasse the number of
teams will be increased to fifty. The men
work from o'clock in the morning until
6 in the evening. They live in camp on
the north side of the break, and four Chi
nese are employed 10 prepare their meals.
The sediment used in the work is OBJ
tanned on either side of the break. On the
south end there are eleven acres of this
material and at the opposite end about
three acres