The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-05-23
BUNAU- VRAILLA'S
PLAN FOR GREAT
a STRAITS AT PANAMA
THE FRENCH ENGINEER CRTICsEs LOCK CANAL
AND THE SYSTEM EXCAVATION WOULD CONSTRUCT
A GREAT WATERWAY WOULD WORK WITH
FLOATING DREDGERs WORKING UNDER


Americans are having and have had
with the construction of the Panama
canal" said NJ. BunauVarilla, the well
known French engineer, are not due
to individual errors and setbacks, but
to the entire system of excavation"
NJ. Bunau- Varilla was chief engineer
of the old French company at Panama,
and has been in close touch with all
subsequent work on the isthmus thus
there is probably no man living more
capable of understanding the situation
from its very beginnings up to the
present.
THE Americans will fnd,' he con-
tinued that the success of their un-
dertal1ing is not a question whether
the canal be under the control Of the
government or of private companies
With the most amazing blindness they
have refused to profit by French ex-
perience, and have harked back to the
plan of constructing a lock canal, the
most destructible type of all. This
plan was the one originally laid before
the old French company, but we dis
carded it long before we began opera
lions in Panama All will agree that
the ideal waterway between the two
oceans would be a strait so wide that
large steamers might pass each other
easily, so wide that the tides Of the
Atlantic and Pacific could mix and
mingle without endangering the traffic.
WET EXCAVATION.
But the apparently obvious objection
is made that such a thoroughfare
would cost untold millions and would
require a century for its completion.
With the dry system of excavation by
steam shovels as used by the Americans
today such a project would indeed be
out of question. But with the system
which l propose, the wet system of
excavation by means of floating dred-
gers, it is an entirely different pro-
position.
However before considering the
benefits and possibilities of the wet
method as employed now on the Sue2
and Manchester canal let us reckon
the cost of the straits by the dry
g method The American commission in
1905 estimated that it could construct a
lockless sea-level canal thirty-five feet
deep and $50 feet bottom width in
twenty-five years at the cost of $780,
OOO.O OO Two hundred and five million
, cubic yards of earth were to be eX-
tracted. Now, figuring on this basi:
straits 600 feet wide at sea level and
500 feet wide at bottom level, with al
average depth of fifty feet, would cos
$500, O0O 600 and would take from siXt!
to seventy years. There would be 900,
100000 cubic yards of earth to be re
| moved
| Under these conditions no wonde
no one was ever visionary enough t
propose such gigantic undertaking
But strait of those very same dimen
sions could be constructed with the we
method in fifteen years and prov
sional lock canal could be opened q
the end of three years for restricte
/ traffic.
This is how I should go about it
the construction of the straits were
my hands: I should build dams at II
extremities of the central mass or Gull
bra cut, which covers a distance
seven miles. Then I should turn all Il
water of the neighboring streams in
1 Iaf 70 do nd "a
dredging with electric bucket dredgel
The use of electricity for dredging pu
poses was unknown in the days of t
French company. But since then,
1895, I have made absolutely satisfa
tory experiments on the River Elsa
Italy. Sixteen of these dredgers wou
be needed on the Culebra cut. When
became necessary to break rock
should use powerful Lobnitz machin,
which reduce the hardest substances
that they can be dredged like ordina
clay. Then should load the spoils
- barges 1000 tons on each. The
- barges would be fitted up with tn
doors on the bottom.
. LAKE OF GAMBOS.
"Now arises the great problem of di
posing of the spoils. With the dry sy
TEN of excavation, these must be haul
, great distance and dumped in t
surrounding valleys. This operati'
means stupeneOus outlay of wor
- men, trains and tracks-track whit
are constantly in need of repair, OWL
to the continual rains. But with t
wet system there is no need for I
this enormous labor. We can Obta
from nature the most perfect of
dumps-the Lake Of Gamboa. tt
lake we could create by erecting
= dam across the course OF the Chagr
river. Now this semlartificial la
W.T. would cover an area of forty-thT
VI square miles and would amply aecoI
nt' modate four times the volume OF I
* spells for the entire straits 1t won
n be connected with the dredging level