The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-11-27
IMPROVEMENT OF
OUR WATERWAYS
Public Works Boards
Excellent Record.
PRAISED BY EXCURSI0NISTS
sACRAMENToANs VISIT NEW
TOWN SHOALS.
Loud in Praise Of the Extent of the
Work Accomplished, as Well
as It's Substantial
Quality.
PRAISED BY ExCURsIoNIsTs
sACRAMENToANS VISIT NEW
TOWN SHOALS.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

SACRAMENTO, Nov. 26.-About $50
we'll known State and County off1clals
and merchants, residents of Sacramen-
to and adjacent counties, attended the
excursion to-day to the Elk Horn
easement and the jetties at the New
Town shoals, given by Commissioner
of Public Works E. E. Leake and his
auditing board. The excursion afforded
the first opportunity to representa-
tive section of the public to see what
the present commission has accom-
plished during the two years it has
been in office, and on every hand ex-
pressions of surprise at the extent OF
the work and communication for its
substantial quality were heard.
Among the passengers were Con-
gresham Marion de Vries and Major
NJ. H. Heuer, the Government engineer,
who has charge of the work on the
navigable rivers of California and who
for some months has been serving as
consulting engineer to the commits
sion.
Major Heuer spoke in most compli-
mentary terms of the work accom-
plished by the commission, declaring
that in all his experience he had never
known of a commission which had
effected SO much at such a small outlay
of money. The commission was author
lied by the last Legislature to expend
$500, 000 but while it has constantly
been at work and While various points
on the Sacramento and San Joaquin
rivers show a vast Improvement
through its endeavorS, the total eX-
pense to date has been but S78,812 AZ.
Fifteen or twenty years ago the sec
ton of Yolo County along the the river,
and lying in a northwesterly direction
from Sacramento, was populated by
whose vacant and dilapidated homes
and granaries, seen now from the decks
of the river boats, testify to the ruin
which the annual floods have wrought.
One Of the most vulnerable portions of
the levee was located near Elk Horn,
and the breaks were so frequent there
that for nearly 1900 feet the old levee
was completely washed away, the
water even at its lowest stage refusing
TO stay in it's channel, the river dividing
its flow between the channel and the
basin into which the crevasse opened.
It was here that the commission de-
| cided to make it's first large experiment
| The result is to be found in a magnifi-
! cent piece of engineering skill in the
shape of an easement 1000 feet long
| covered by a rounded concrete surface
! some Is feet in width. This concrete
rests upon a foundation many feet
| deep, of rock and earth, solidly packed
| and is fianked the entire length by q
system of piles and riprap work. Front
! ing this again is an earth embankment
rising ten or twelve feet from the river
! level and removing the easement eighty
or a hundred feet from the water.
The purpose of this stupendous piece
| Of work is to confine the river within
! it's banks during stages of low water
and also during stages of high water
until an excessive height is reached
when the water will flow over it int
the Yolo Basin, thus taking the strair
| off the general 1evee system. Eventu
ally, it is believed, the effect will be thu
complete restoration of the valuable
| lands which the annually recurring
floods pouring through the open levee
have ruined.
The jetty system at the New. Tow
shoals was also inspected The Worl
| here is of a character to remove tn
shoals which for over forty years hav
INSTRUCTED the entrance to the rive
from salt water. The natural width o
the river at that point is 5000 feet. bu
the jettieS constructed by the commits
sion narrow the channel to 1900 feet
thus adding to the velocity Of tn
stream and augmenting it's power to re
move the shoals. In some places
since the work has been put in, tn
shoals have cleared for depth Of ST
feet, although this cleansing has thu
far not been uniform.
Engineer NJ A. Nurse, who ha
charge Of the work for the commission
said to The Call correspondent that tn
next high-water season would demon
strate the utility of the. work per
formed by the commission, and he wa
confident the commission would be jus
titled in it's course by the action of III
high water.
All the plans upon which the worI
has been done were first submitted I
the Secretary Of War, passed on b
him and the Government Board of En-
gineers and returned with their ap
prevail.