Los Angeles herald., 1908-11-03


night, says he believes the men VIII
again set a new mark as soon as ad-
ditional electrical machinery now on
the road from the east arrives and is
placed in position.
Until now the Gunnison tunnel mas
held the record in driving hard rock
tunnels where drilling is required with
length of 449 feet in thirty-one days.
This is the tunnel being built by the
United States reclamation service Tor
the Uncompahgre irrigation project, ana
much resembles the Elizabeth tunnel
in cross section and length. Both are
about 12x12 feet in section, and the
Gunnison tunnel is 10000 feet long, sg
while the Elizabeth tunnel is 2760O rect
long. Both tunnels are in granite rock.
The run of 449 feet in the Gunnison,
however, was made by driving the sec
ton one-half size, that is, by smaller
heading, Sx12 feet.
Driven Full Size
It is interesting to note that ootn
the Elizabeth tunnel and the Gunnl-
son tunnel were driven by day labor
under the direct charge of engineers
of the government and of munlcl-
pality. The Elizabeth tunnel was
driven full size by Leyner drills; the
mucking was done by hand and trans
ported by electric motors; the heading
is about one-half mile from the portal.
Work has been carried on almost
increasingly since last October on TINS
tunnel, which is sixty-five miles nortn
of Los Angeles and is the strategic
point in the construction OF the aqueS
duct, as it determines the length OF
time that must elapse before the waters
of owens valley can be broagh down
to the valley of the San Fernando.
Sunday night $500 feet had been COM
pleted from the south portal and l4UO
feet from the north portal.
For the past week the men on the
south heading have been working with
all the energy and enthusiasm OF
college football team. Hardly time to
eat has been taken, hours allowed Tor
rest have been given over to cutting
into the hard rock and as one Shirt
stepped from before the tunnel race
another shift has taken its place.
Throughout the last twenty-four hours
the pace was kept up without min
ute's interruption. Saturday night bull
letins were postetd at the tunnel portal
and when, a few minutes after IL
o'clock Sunday morning, Assistant
Chief Engineer ]. b. Lippincott meas-
ured the distance and announcement
was made that twenty feet had been
driven In the twenty-four hours and
an American record broken by seven
teen feet, the entire camp was awake
to hear the news
The event Is not to go without
celebration. A dance will be held at
the tunnel portal November Z, and
piano is to be brought from Lancaster,
twenty-five miles distant, over the
crest of the Coast range and down
through San Francisquito pass, to fur
nish music for the occasion.
w. C. Aston, the tunnel superlnten-
dent, Is himself a man with record.
He has an enviable career of eleven
years as a mining engineer, and sue
ceeded in breaking some tr0nel records
In Colorado, both for rapidity and low
cost of construction. At the civil SER
vice examination held in June he
headed the list and the south portal was
given over to his charge He imme-
diately began the selection of his men.
Some OF them followed him from Colo
RADIO, because miners like to work under
a mine superintendent who can do
things With J. w. Henderson as mas
ter mechanic he settled down to snoW
"Bill' Mulholland, chief engineer, what
he could do.
The men under him will profit well
from their unusual exertions. AS the
cost per day for driving the tunnel
is practically a fixed amount, the fas-
ter the work is driven, the less is the
cost per foot, This saving the city
shares with the miners. The average
distance to be made for month of
thirty-one days is fixed at 24S feet, and
for each foot in excess of this bonus
OF 40 cents is paid. AS the average
has been exceeded by 228 feet, each
miner will draw down an additional
$S7 20 for the month of October. This
payment of a bonus is included in the
total cost given above of 36.16 per foot,
which is materially less than the cost
of driving the Gunnison tunnel.
Mass Meeting Held
A mass meeting of the men was held
in the mess hall Sunday morning at
which Lippincott was present and ad-
dressed them. He assured them of
the Interest. with which the aqueduct
commission was watching their work
and said that from three stancpoints
the record set was valuable one; first,
the honor involved; second, the fact
that 1t had been shown that the city
could build as cheaply, as fast and as
satisfactorily as contractor, and third,
that it had demonstrated their ardor
and enthusiasm in the project.
Farther to the north in the Jawbone
section the work is being carried on
with as great a vigor as In the Eliza
beth division. Here twenty tunnels are
now under construction, and for the
month of October 1900 feet was the ag-
gregate of tunnel bored. The cost was
$11 per foot, as opposed to approxi-
mately $3s foot, the lowest bid. when
proposals to do the work by contract
were opened.
In the AIojave division 1900 feet of
completed canal, excavated by steam
shovels and lined with cement are Visi-
BILE from Southern Pacific trains.