Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1906-05-24
SEA-LEVEL WATERWAY.
FEAR OF EARTHQUAKES CAUSED SENATE
COMMITTEE TO SO DECLARE.
No Guaranty That the Canal Zone Will In Future
Be Exempt From Such Disasters as Over.
wheImed San Francisco.

and the more economical in operation
and maintenance.
The estimates of the minority and
the majority of the board of consult.
ing engineers on the time that would
be required to e~xcavate the different
types of canal are reviewed, and the
majority report concludes that the
sea-level canal would not require more
than two or three years more than
the lock type.
Risks encountered in the opera
ton of the sea-level canal are made
light of by the report, which says the
Gamboa dam would be ready to con.
troll the Chagres floods before the
Culebra excavation is half finished,
and the balance Of the excavation in
the prism and below sea level could
go on without interruption. When the
Chagres is subsidized and controlled
and the sea-level canal made, its use
will be attended with no more risk
than equal sailing distance in the
oceans.
Locks and Dams.
A chapter of the report is devoted
to the locks and dams proposed by
the minority report of the consulting
engineers, and these are asserted to
be an element of danger. The vari.
GUS accidents to which such mechanism
might be subject are recounted, and
the report asserts that these hazards
can be avoided by the small sacrifice
OF time necessary to the construction
of the sea-level canal.
The claim is made by the report
that ships of all classes could be
passed through the sea-level canal in
eight hours, and that half that time
would be consumed in passing ships
through locks alone. The cost of an
nual maintenance is estimated at ST.
$4,000 for the sea level and $780,.
600 for the lock type.
Discussing the advantage of the sea-
level canal to the country controlling
1t in time of war, the report says:
If free from all obstacles to quick
transit 100 warships of average size, NOV
ing in one direction, route clear, could be
Iassed from ocean to ocean in less than
a day. "
All naval commanders and commercial
masters of the great national and pri-
Vate vessels Of the world are almost to
a man opposed unalterably to the intro
duction of any lock to lift vessels over
the low summit that nature has left for
us to remove"
The majority urges that an enemy
could destroy a lock canal much
easier than a sea-level cana with x
plosives
The ultimate final cost of the sea.
level canal, as estimated by the ma
jority, Is $780, 00, 900, while the cost
OF the lock canal is regarded as I'm.
certain. The minority of the board
OF consulting engineers estimated the
cost at $139, 705, 200, and to this the
majority says should be added the in.
terest on the extra cost of mainten-
ance, the expenses Of clearing the
titles to the $4,000 acres Of land that
would be submerged by the central
lake proposed by the lock plan, which.
1t is estimated, would make the total
cost at least 100000, 900. The cost Of
transferring the lock plan into a sea.
level canal, after the former is com.
pleted, is estimated at $500, 100000.
In conclusion, the majority saws:
Your committee feels entirely conf.
dent that the board Of consulting engt-
neers, selected to study this problem.
has submitted a plan that responds
IN every respect to the conditions stat.
ed above, and that the sea-level canal
can be realized in ten or eleven wears.
at a cost not to exceed $50, 900, 900
ABOVE That required by the construc.
ZION OF the multi-lock canal proposed
by the minority"