The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-08-13
PRELIMINARY surveys for thi
Itch were made in August, 1908,
with the object of determining

k with the object of determining
she most feasible elevation and location
for bringing the water of the WaImea
stream on to the cane lands of the
Kekaha Sugar Co.
The writer was appointed engineer
in charge of the wo-k and commenced
the surveys for the ditch location about
the middle of April, 1906. Contracts
were let and the work of construction
was begun two weeks later. The water
was admitted at the intake July 10,
1907. fourteen and half months after
the start.
The Waimea river is one of the
largest streams in the islands; it has
dry-weather flow of nearly 100 mil
lion gallons per day, which, until re-
Gently, ran to waste into the sea. A
mile from the beach it splits up into
two branches of about equal size-the
Olokele and the Waimea streams.
In 1908 ldr. NJ. NJ. O'Shaughnessy,
C. E., built the famous Olokele ditch
of go million gallons capacity which
conveys the wafer of one branch, at
1875 feet elevation, to the Makaweli
cane lands. About the same year Mr..
E. Tappan Tannaat, c. E., built the
Waimea fume which withdraws eight
million gallons from, the Waimea
branch, for the Waimea plantation.
The Kekaha-W aimea ditch, just open
ed, has its intake on the Waimea branch
of the river at $50 feet elevation and
eight miles up from the sea.
The intake is by means of tunnel
which enters a deep pool, below the
surface; and the water is admitted
through two grated openings, each five
feet by six feet; no dam is required.
Passing through a series of tunnels in
side vertical pals 600 feet high, then
by ditch through fields of loose rocks
of great size, or by raised ditch fit
ting on to the ground, the water is
led for four and half miles to the
edge of a plateau above the river.
At this point it crosses the Waimea
valley by means of an inverted syphen
of steel pipe of 4s-inch and 42inch
diameter and 2190 feet long, and de-
livers into tunnels 8, 8 and 1880
feet above the Waimea fume.
Emerging from here, the ditch
traverses gently sloping ground, pass
es through tunnels IL and y, and reach
ing the open ground above the village
of Waimea, it bends to the west and
heads for Kekaha. Here the country
is much broken by a series of rocky |
gulches, one after another: tunnels 10, |
Ia and Is, and two inverted syphons
Of wooden stave pipe, each 200 feet
long and 40 inches diameter, are on
this section.
This upper ditch is 16 miles long
and ends at Waiawa gulch, above the
residences of Mr.. Augustus Knudsen
and Senator E. Knudsen. |
The tunnels are eight feet wide and /
six feet high; they have an aggregate
length of $500 feet and they were
driven, for the most part, through very
hard rock: the ditch has a capacity of
30 million gallons per day above the
yyphOn across the Waimea valley and
10 million gallons below: the size of
the former being nine feet wide at
the bottom and four feet six inches
deep; and of the latter eight feet and
four feet three inches. The surplus
water will be turned back into the
river from the syphon; yielding $50
horsepower without other expense than
the cost of the machinery as well as
the needs of the taro and
rice lower down the valley.