Arizona republican., 1908-03-04
CONSTRUCTION WORK
 ON THE BIG DAMS
Nine Thousand Cubic Yards of Rock Were Laid at Roosevelt Last Month. Granite Reef Conditions.

Engineer L. c. Hill yesterday re- ceived the monthly report of the prog ress of construction on the Roosevelt dam, showing the work done in the month of February. It was quite pleasing for the dam is now at a point where every stroke of work done shows something. It is no more inn portant than earlier work but it can be seen better. February was not Q record month for rock laying but it was very close up to the record, and that too regardless of the fact that the water has been running continu- ously over almost one-third of the dam, at the north end, and is still 100000 inches.
 Nine thousand cubic yards of rock were laid in February, the downstream face of the dam now being twenty-five feet above datum and the upstream face being forty feet above datum ex- cept that portion the water is passing over That of course remains as be- fore, four feet high on the lower side and nine feet high on the upper side. A months work after the water is turned back through the tunnel will bring this low end of the dam up probably twenty feet higher, though it is not expected the water will be thus diverted again for probably two months. In the meantime no time need be lost. The rocklaying can continue on the higher part of the dam and there is other work also that will keep the contractor busy.
 Llewellyn Iron Works began about a week ago. the placing of the gates in the tunnel and this may take a couple of months to complete. The tunnel will have to remain closed un- til that time. Even If it were open it could not carry away such a volume as the river now carries, it's capacity at the present time being 1900 second feet. Later when the dam will give the tunnel a head of fifty feet, the ca pacity Of the tunnel will be three times as great and when the reservior is full the pressure will force 10000 second feet of water through the tun- nel. It may be remarked that that will represent some force and visitors to Roosevelt will do well to try to cork up the hole.
 The work at Granite Reef is pro- gressing nicely also. Everything that can be done on the south side of the river except the final cleaning away of the construction plants and devices is practically finished, and everything to be done on the north side, except ac tually cutting into the canal, will be finished by the middle of next week. 1 The teams that have been used in augmenting this work win now be employed in hauling gravel to the con crete mixer and in helping with the canal widening work below the head. Another section of fifty feet of the dam. fully completed, has been added to the stub end on the south side and an additional section of fifty feet is under construction. There is now entirely finished about 800 feet of the main dam and the foUndation is in clear across the river A small DOT tion of it has only the "cut-off' walls representing the upper and lower face of the foundation proper, still lacking the center or core, but most of the way the foundation is entirely finished and the apron is all finished except about 100 feet in length. This will be quickly done when all is in readiness. At the present time there is a pretty big flow of water and the operations in the bed are confined to the section within the coffer dam. Practically all dhe work now however. is even with or above the normal bed of the river. There is no great problem ahead in this construction the most difficult work having been already accomp- lished and the rest of it will be main ly placing the immense yardage of concrete by means or the big cable. It is estimated that this will take three or four months of work after the river recedes sufficiently to get at it properly. But meantime it should be really necessary, by means of cofferdam or other device, a goodly quantity of water could be diverted into the canals even before the dam is finally completed. It is likely though that the rock dam at the head of the Arizona will serve all purposes until it shall be desirable to turn the water in the canals to get it out of the way for the finishing touches in construc-