The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-11-09
HUGE Gates FOR
PANAMA CANAL


gest gates I'm the world are being
made In pittsburg for the Panama Ca
nal. Any one Of the ninety-two OF
them, for there are to be forty six
pairs In an, will be about as high as
six-story building, sixty-hye feet
vide and seven feet thick. The struc.
tural steel that will so to make them
will weigh 10000 tons, or more than
eight times as much as was used to
build EiTel tower.
The mighty portals designed to adj
NIT a worlds commerce from one
ocean to another, must withstand a
tide of criticism as we'll as a tremen-
dous pressure Of water and possible
commissions of earth. For years the
controversy over gates or no gates,
locks or sea level mas been the di-
viding issue of the canal problem. In
the face of fear in some quarters that
the foundations on the Isthmus are
not sure enough for locks, that earth
quakes or water pressure would dis.
lodge them, and that an enemy's
mines or accidental explosions might
dislodge them, the Government has
begun to build the gates
The cost will be S5.5OO.OOO. The
builders are the McClintic Marshall
Steel Construction co. half of whose
Independent plant here has been Civ
en- over entirely to the gate contract
OF the 10000 tons of steel required,
the heaviest single piece will weigh
about eighteen tons. These will be
the base Orders, which are seven feet
wide, and which will be placed much
like the first floor Orders of a sky
scraper
The series of Orders above them
will range from 3.S feet apart near
the bottom to feet apart at the top,
and over the skeleton structure thus
formed a sheathing of watertight ar
NOR plate will be bolted, much after
the fashion of clapboards on a house
The thickness of the plates will
range from an inch a, the base to ZIG
of an inch at the top. The weight of
a single gate will be about 600 tons,
and the dimensions are n to 50 feet
high, 60 to Go feet wide and Z feet
thick.
The thousands of individual pieces,
numbered and fitted to go together
like children's blocks, will be shipped
by steamer via Baltimore, and with
them will go four hundred skilled
up. The advance guard of experts
leaves here in December, and the
first work probably will begin early
in 1911. 1t will take three years to
complete the job.
The location of the forty-siX pairs
of gates will be twenty at the Gatun
dam on the Pacific side, twelve at
Pedro Miguel, and rourteen at Mira
flores, near the Atlantic entrance.
The gates are designed to hold back
water Ala feet deep in a channel 10
wide, which means a pressure of a
million pounds.
Engineers point out that, even If
a tremendous explosion or earthquake
should damage or destroy one or more
sets of gates, no great disaster would
ensue, for all locks are to be made in
duplicate to accommodate traffic in
both directions at once, and the wrec
kage of one set of locks would only
necessitate the diversion of commerce
into another set.
But violent earthquakes have not
occurred in the Panama region for
more than two centuries, and it would
require a mighty siege for an enemy
to destroy the locks Each lock will
be ample for a ship 80 per cent larg-
err than any now afioat, and it has
been estimated that as many as a
hundred ships may be handled in a
single day.
There are no locks approaching
these in size. The famous Suez ca
nal is a sea-level affair, and the few
gatelock canals would have to com
bine their gates to equal the size and
strength Of the great doors of Pana-
ma.