The Hawaiian gazette., 1900-07-24
Success Of a Mammoth
Undertaking.
TWENTY-FIVE MILES LONG
Last touches TO Hawaiian CON-
merciaI and Sugar Com
pany'S Plant.

PAIA, Maui. July l9.--Cne Of the larg-
est engineering undertakings ever at
tempted on this Island Is now almost
completed The new irrigation ditch for
the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar co.
VIII be finished in &c course of a few
days and i may be Of interest to the pub
lie to give few facts concerning it.
At the time that the control Of the Ha-
waiian Commercial and Sugar Co. chang
ed hands, an order had been placed with
the firm of Fraser < Chalmers to fur
Inish the plantation with four large pumps
each having capacity of 100000 gallons
! in twenty-four hours. The idea being to
open up some 5000 acres of fine new cane
and lying between the level of the old
itch dSo fceO and upper boundary of the
state about l75 feet above sea level, to
force the water by means Of pumps to
he higher elevations and allow the old
Hitch to irrigate the lower lands.
The new management deemed it the
Sisest plan to reverse the proposition and
pump the water on the lower land and
dig new ditch which would bring the
water out on the 1850 foot level. The rea-
son for this change was that by so doing
many thousands of dollars would be
saved to the plantation by reducing the
cost of pumping. For five or six months
of the year there vii. be ample water to
I'LL both bitches. in which case the pumps
can be shut down entirely and again
whenever there is an extra heavy rain
fall In the mountains both bitches will
be hlled and the water carried to reser-
voirs, in which event the pumps can be
closed down for time.
The contract for constructing the ditch
was let to Carl Jensen, who is well and
favorably known in his line of business
having at that time just completed an ex-
t'nsivc contract on the Oahu Railroad.
Associated with him was II. a. Jaeger,
VINO had Just completed n contract for
making a section of the Pail road Work
was commenced at once and a force of
between four and five hundred laborers
We're employed.
The ditch is over twenty-four miles in
length, starting at Kailua, n point well up |
in the woods on the rainy side of the ISL |
and, and slowly winding its way down |
now through thickets of guava or louhala |
trees, then along the side of a deep gulch |
till suddenly it seems to disappear alto |
gether in the side of the gulch only to
break out again on the opposite side of
the hill. And thus through tunnel fumes |
and wrought iron pipe sphons it finds
ITS way to the cane fields below
One has but to go over the line to realize |
what an undertaking II is. There are in !
all some seventy-four tunnels, varying I'm |
length from so feet TO 1000 feet, and |
to a total of 3O,7O7 feet, or
nearly four miles. The work in some of
these tunnels was extremely dangerous
on account of the falling slabs of clay
and decayed rock from the top of the
tunnel and for that reason 1t was found |
necessary 10 timber. Most or the long
tunnels develop water and some are so
moist that one gets soaked in passing
through.
There are several deep gulches across
he line of the ditch, most notable of
which are the Halehaku and Mallko
sulches. The water is carried over these
~ means of "A wrought iron pipe forty
our inches in diameter which lays al
most perpcndicularly up and down the
ides of the guch. The pipe is in reality
. siphon, the opposite end being lower
han where the water enters
The smaller gulches are spanned by
means of an immense fume six feet wide
" four feet Ceep. This ditch will cost
he plantation In the neghborhood Of
10000, and will includes besides 10Gl3S
Get of ditch proper, 20,7O7 feet of tunnels,
900 feet of ii-inCh wrought iron pipe and
900 feet or llumes. 1t will at its normal
"l'"'ItN' carry 10 the CaheHeIus bU,UUO,UOU I
allons of water every twcnty-four hours ,
nd at an expense which, outside of the
interest on the original Investment, will
e extremely light
Jensen and Jaeger have both had their | {
ands fun owing to the large number of
ections of ditch which We're being work &
d at the same time, and they deserve
1uch credit for the rapid, thorough and
'orkmanlike manner in which they com
leted the ditch. 1t is understood that
lille giving satisfaction, they have been
BILE also TO do very well for themselves 4
n the contract.