Bisbee daily review., 1906-08-21
THE PROGRESS AT
 TONTO BASIN DAM
Big Elevators About Ready to Make Excavation for
 Foundation.

Barring delays that may be caused by high water, in the Salt river, work will begin shortly on the actual work ing of building the foundation for the Tonto Basin dam.
 Engineer Ad Parish, who is back in Phoenix, after several days at the reservoir site, brings this important announcement. In addition he speaks enthusiastically of the progress that is being made.
 In every department there is great activity, the contractors and govern ment officials losing no time in getting the preliminary work done as fast as | possible.
 Engineer Parish states that the di-
 version dam at the power canal has
 reached the point where the abutt-
 ments are in place and finished. The
 curtain wall for the main dam at
 Whitney's camp is about finished
 The sluice ways are completed and |, in working order, which means that
 work on the dam proper will not be l long in starting, provided there are
 no ov"e"riCn"' rises in the river to
 prevent operations.
 In some places the excavations for
 the foundations are down twelve feet and in ether places fifteen. Unless high water fills this in it will take
 but a short time to reach bedrock. | The elevators, which are probably
 the most interesting machinery at
 work at the dam, were within six
 feet of bedrock when Parish was at Roosevelt, and by this time are prob
 ably all the way down. The next
 step is to anchor them and begin
 sluicing.
 Golfer dams above and below the
 excavation are in place. They are
 expected to keep the water from run
 ming into the excavation from above
 and form backing in from below.
 Thus far there have been no excep- iional rises in the river. The eieva-
 tcrs have been keeping the pit dry. l Speaking of the elevators, Parish
 states that they throw a twer"n.inch
 stream under 240 feet Of pressure,
 and N:ill lift rocl,s the size of a mans head carrying them up and over the coffeI Gar. I.cIcw.
 These e'eTatCrs consis- O. q pipe
 which fits inside of a large one. as stream of water when it leaves the | first pipe creates a vacum, which sucks in whatever may be within reach.
 Tests mads of the elevators demon strate that they will in a short time | remove all the dirt, sand and rock not larger than six inches in diameter. l Anything larger will have to be taken cut by other means.
 Parish states the contractors feel l confident that once the entire excava- ] tion apparatus is in working order it will be but few weeks until work can begin on the foundations. The only source of delay will be floods. and it is expected that the diversion dam will take care of these unless they are unusually large. Asked if the report that a negro
 working on one of the dericks fell into the quicksand last Monday and | disappeared, Parish replied that he had heard nothing about such an ac- count. One negro did fall from derrick, but he was not seriously in- 1 jured.
 Taken as a whole matters are iii much better shape at the Tonto Basin dam at the present time, as far as the progress of work and conditions go, | than at any time in the past. Most | of the preliminary work has been done, and actual construction will be- l fore long he undar way