Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1905-08-07
PROGRESS OF CONSTRUCTION
Resume Of Conditions at the ROOse-
Welt Storage Basin.

From Mr.. B. A Fowler, who return
ed from the Roosevelt reservoir site
Saturday night, was secured a very
complete resume of the present stage
of construction enterprises being car
ried on both by the government and by
particular thing in Connection with this
great work that has not been previous
ly mentioned it win be entertaining
to most readers of The Republican to
know just how rapidly things are NOV
ing along and just how much has been
accomplished
Mr.. Fowler left here in company with
Mr.. Hill on July %, arriving at Roose-
welt the next evening. He made a
inspection of the freight road
to the dam, of all enterprises there and
jOurneyed up Tonic creek twenty-five
miles and up Salt river twenty miles.
The only place he did not visit this
time was the saw mill in the Sierra
Ancha mountains but he informed him
self as to what was being done there,
so he has a thoroughly up to date idea
of the situation.
The road from GOldfield to Roose-
welt is now a practically finished en-
terprise though d road gang of some
size will be continued yet for a few
months. conveniently at hand for
and when not otherwise
engaged it will be busy eliminating
some of the sharp curves and round
ing off sharp points so that when fin
ally completed ten mule teams and
other large outfits may turn easily al
most anywhere. The road gang will
then be reduced to a mere repair crew
to keep the thorOughfare in order.
The high line road from Roosevelt to
Globe is in excellent condition. The
government though has found it neces-
sary to specially construct a heavy wa
gon for the hauling of large machinery
even on this good road. and the con-
tractors are finding the same neces-
sity. This is no fault of the roads but
some of their machinery is too heavy
to be hauled anywhere on an ordinary
freight wagon.
The Tonic high line road, a half mile
in length has been completed from the
dam site to the top of the hill on the
north side of the river, ahead of the
previous arrangement, to enable Con-
tractor O'Rourke to get from the dam
site to his cable way more easily. When
mention is made of the north side of
the river reference is to the general
east and west course of the stream as
Phoenix understands 1t. though at that
particular point the river runs more
nearly north and south so accurately
speaking north would mean west to a
man on the ground. This Tonic high
line road is one that has not hitherto
been mentioned in these columns as It
is only a short line and purely de-
tail of reservoir construction, though
a very. necessary one. Near this point,
namely on the hill overlooking the
north end of the dam, Mr.. O'ROurke
will erect a nice residence for his own
use during the construction of the dam
and near by it viii be his construction
camps, Offices. etc. From his residence
site there is a fine view of the basin up
both streams and also overlooking the
entire scene of operations. Mr.
O'ROurke has started his construction
camp one tent being UP and he has al
so built a private reservoir on the hill
for domestic purposes for his house,
camps. etc. He has run a small pipe
line across the river from the south
side from his source of water supply
in Cottonwood creek. to furnish his re-
servoir. All preliminary freighting
during the construction of the cable
line will of course be over the half
mile road but after the cable is up the
major part of what is needed on the
north side will be carried over by the
cable. This freighting has already be-
gun and on Friday Mr.. O'Rourke began
excavating for the cable terminal on
the north side. This is clear up the
mountain side $50 feet above the high
line road.
The cement mill is now burning 15C
barrels of cement per day and is grind
ing daily 100 barrels of the burned pro-
duct. At the present time only one
kiln is in use but the other will be
started as soon as the power is avail
able. An additional bin is being made
at the cement mill with a capacity OF
1000 barrels, the old one holding 5000
barrels The cement mill is working
nicely and there is no doubt it will be
able to do all that is expected of it.
The oil delivery from Mesa is i'm
proving all the time and it is believ-
ed Will fulfill every expectation.
Excavation for the power house OF
the mountain side below the dam site
is nearly done, the tail race tunnel anC
the work on the concrete and steel lin
ing of the penstOck tunnel will begir
at once. The penstock is SIS feet Ions
and the steel for the lining is now be
ing punched and riveted in Los An
geles The last piece of machinery FOL
the power house is on the way from
Globe and it will all be placed early II
October. 1t is expected the steel anC
concrete lining of the penstOck anC
power canal tunnels will be completed
in September. Out of 5000 yards o
excavation for the Power canal there
remains but $4,000 yards to move
There are twenty tunnels in all and thu
, lining of all of them except the pen
stock Will be finished in a couple o
weeks if no mishap occurs. Work OF
, the siphons under Pinto and Cotton
wood creeks is progressing nicely a:
mentioned in detail in an article il
these columns a few days ago. Sep
TENDER will see the finish of all thu
concrete work including the uppe
, tunnels and the head and headgate'
of the Power canal as well.
The saw mill up in the Sierra Ancha:
iS now turning ont and hauliug to thu