Albuquerque evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1911-1914, 1913-01-07
One Third of Work on Building Elephant
Butte Dam on Rio Gr0nde Finished
According to Official State
ment Of Reclamation Service
More Than $4,000 Cubic
Yards of Concrete On Main
Dam Have Been Put In
Place.

one third completed, Is The great
reservoir ~ Elephant Butte. This =
the ohiCial statement Of the Rcclama.
ton Record published b. the govern
mcnt. December issue More than
5000 cubic yards OF the main dam
itself have been put IN place. which
means that the dan IL per cent or
on"-tWentieth completed
Excavation 10 date has totaied zoo. 4.
"00 cubic yards. 10000 yards OF
which was done on account OF tho
great hume 90 carry tho river during
.ons,rusiioR, but much OF which Was
necessary also Tor the foundation OF
The dam Itself
Excavation Tor the dam foundation
ig nua going ON. according to Official
statements. AZ the rate ut about 80. 70
unU ,uJi, yards per month"; rate
That wilt be- greatly exceeded. possibly
doubled, when the whole mechanical
plant ana 40, general operation are
FULLY under NdN The "rlau shell
grab buckets" take up three cubic
yards al q snap. weighing about three
toms The vtbl~Nays carrying the
buckets are Of 1000 feet span be-
tween towers over quarter of q
milr, the cables are 900 feet above
the river bed and VIII bc over $40
feet above tine bottom at the cxcaNu-
ton l"l the uam foundation
Obe ut the three rablcNays handles
sand ana gravel which Us being taken
away o" a stor. gc dump. aud viii be-
brought utHk later ana used In the
concrete The other tNo cableWays
are handling waste. which will he
used tor the present in .rongihcning
th" con'r otms above and below the
great excavation Two pumps are re-
quircd Go keep the water out of tho
excavations they pump 5000 gallons
per minute and operate about eight
hours lea - Toe excavations are be-
ing made hy three SHIFTS OF men.
working eight hours each and WORK
never stops Electric lights illumi-
nate the deld az night 4 great
QUAR-, has been opened and double
ua,N railroad runs through u The
government is operating quito . lurlc
railroad ss stem in connection with the
work u"arI. tp miles o. line
The scruprrs ave merely removing
the surface silt. which lies In places
'h'i l'' H"NN HHu AihN 'I I'D oIh'i
that the grab buckets may ihcu pick
up the sand and gruyrI frer from silt,
TINS sorted material Is taken 60 stOr-
age dumps and viii bc used for con
crete. bat inr SILT is waste. The saud
and gravel stratum b. of limited depth,
and sitter that IL penetrated. the re-
manning material viii bee wasted ABOVE
and below tie dam and viii not De
littcd tu the upper track lovcl AZ ALL
The upper rack level is being used
'ur CARRYING the storage material, ana
pII later hr used In the concrete
operations.
The operations have aN been plan.
ned Tor economy and the coustruc-
ton plant tsyf was 30 planned that
the hnal loss due tu "serJping' would
be- as small as possible. There are
about 600 men at work and more
could not be used 70 advantage az the
present stage.
Thomas Mason has completed a
preliminary survey of a hlgh line
canal for On, Las Palomas and Rim
con ,slc's on the west side uf the
RIO Gtaudr and has arrived in Las
Cruces, where he viii WORK up de.
tailed plans and prepare an estimate.