Bisbee daily review., 1908-03-08
ACTUAL WORK
BEGINSATENGLE
ON GREAT Dam
Parties of Engineers and Hard
at Work and First Construc-
ton Gang Is On the Ground
at Elephant Butte Dam.

a. GiSPiioiit OultC DdIIIs
Ell PASO. TEX. March WORK
Of construction has actually begun en-
the Elephant Butte dam.
The first construction gang, numH
bering about 20 men. arrived at En-
gle, n. NJ, this week and Is now at
work excavating for the eastern abut-
ment of the big dam
The first work in line of construc-
ton will be to clear away all loose and
light material. sand, soil, gravel and
rock, from the neighborhood of the
two ends of the big dam, and get down
to the naked solid rock; this is what
the first gang is now engaged In.
Besides the construction gang, there
is surveying corps at work, number
in t6 men. The surveyors are making
the final locations for the dam. the
spillway, and the temporary tunnel
through which the river must be di-
verted during construction. !
To Cost S6,OOO,OOO.
The great Engle or Elephant Butte
Dam which forms the largest and
most costly unit of the Rio Grande re-
clamation project is estimated to cost
SG,0OO,000. 1t will be arcned up
stream on a six degree curve to Inv
crease the resistance against the pres
sure of the water, and the length of
the crest will be 1900 feet At river
level the dam will be 400 feet long, it
being situated at the mouth of long,
deep, narrow canyon. Its height from
bedrock foundation to the crest will
be PTS feet.
Preparing the Foundation.
Bedrock lies 65 feet below the sandy
bed of the river. and to get a founda-
ton for the dam it will be necessary
to excavate to this depth and to a
width of 200 feet. for the concrete
structure OF the dam itself will be 179
feet wide at the bottom.
Immense Storage Capacity.
The reservoir will be 40 miles long
and, in some places, five or six miles
wide. 1t will have a storage capacity
of 100000 acre feet to the level of
the spillway or. approximately 10O,-
900, 100000 cubic feet or $50, 900, 0o0,-
900 gallons.
This amount of water would suppIy
all the needs of Chicago. with its g.
100000 people. for 80 years; it would
fill the Hudson river basin from New
York to Albany; or. it would cover
the state of Massachusetts six inches
deep.
Reasons for Large Size.
Not more than 100000 acre feet per
annum will be required for irrigating
the 100000 acres included at the be-
ginning under the project; but long
experience with the river has shown
that it will be necessary TO provide for
a series of possible dry years, so that
the engineers have undertaken to
store a supply of water adequate to
irrigate the entire valley for three
years If no water should flow into the
reservoir during that time after it mad
once been filed
There is another reason for making
the reservoir extraordinarily large;
this is the necessity of providing for
taking care of the enormous volume
of silt carried in suspension in the
water of the Rio Grande. While
means have been provided to sluice
out the silt to considerable extent, it
is realized that the gradual deposit
will tend to decrease the storage ca
pacity of the reservoir as years go by.
Hence, it is thought best to allow am
pie storage capacity at the start for
long time in the future inasmuch as IT
would be very uneconomical to buiId
a smaller dam with the expectation of
ultimately increasing it's capacity.
Materials of Construction.
Engineers will appreciate the i'm
mensity of the dam itself from the
following figures: over 800. 200 bar
rels Of cement viii be used in the dam.
there are 44,400 cubic yards of sofs~z
rock and earth excavation, and sss,-
Wv NAOAN JehAOo VI t1CdNdIlOnT
Golfer dams used during construction
will be 400 feet each: a fiune or wat
erway 500 feet long must be provided
that will carry the whole river and
keep it out Of the excavation during
the construction of the dam; excava-
tons in bedrock for dam anchorages
viii total 5000 cubic yards; there will
be $4,000 cubic yards OF concrete be-
low the river bed and 800. 600 cubic
Yards Of concrete above the river bed:
the earth excavation for the spillwax
alone will be 10000 cubic yards.
Largest Reservoir in the World.
The dam itself is not the largest in
the world, but the storage capacity Of
the reservoir is twice as large as the
next largest in the world. which is the
Assuan dam on the Nile WITH a stor-
age capacity Of a little over 1000, o0e
acre feet.
WILL BUILD HOME.
Jake Shearer, the well known MO
leer OF Arizona and Cochise county