Albuquerque evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1911-1914, 1913-09-03
Only Unprecedented Flood
This Winter Can Seriously
Delay Operations; Ready to
Handle Ordinary Freshet.


Elephant Butte y. A., sept. AIN
1913 the people OF the Rio orlando
valley win have ample water for ir-
figaton, unless something unpreco-
dcnted In the way OF floods should
occur.
The work on Elephant Butte dam
Is 50 far advanced that the officials
can state with the utmost condolences
that u there b. not an unusually heavy
SNOW IN Colorado and New Mexico this
winter and "a consequent unprecedont-
ed Hood, they Will have work go far
advanced IN the spring OF 1916 that
the dam viii hold sufficient water to
guarantee irrigation.
Tho engineers, according 10 an ~
paso. Herald" correspondent have
made every preparation to take care
OF the ordinary foods oi the river aud
the usual spring freshet VIII have no
effect upon the work. only an UNI
usual Hood would Interfere. sucli
Hoods have occurred In the history OF
the Rio Grande. one that could not
he carried on IN the splilway would
cover the concrete WORK, stop prog
ress' entail a heavy expense In remOy-
ing the silt afterwards and might
cause serious delay TO the completion
of the great irrigation undertaking.
but officials Of the service are not
looking for anything Of this kind.
Actual work On Dam.
Since completing the first section OF
the dam, on the north bank OF the
river, excayuting work all the way
across has been largely completed and
the second section Of the dam Is now
poured" 10 a level with the river
bed. This Is being carried forward
while the excavations continue for
the other three sections. with good
luck. II IN expected To have these Soc
tons completed and as high as the
river bed by the FIRST of next year. or
at least by nuodtime Then " there
h no interruption by an extra heavy
Hood. the concreting viii continual
throughout the year 1914 and By the
time OF the food period ia 1915. the
dam should Dc sufficiently high to i'm
pound all the water needed for crops
that year.
While Engineer r. n. Baldwin. who
Is In charge of tho work. viii make no
official forecast 20 this effect, this ~
the general talk at the dam and Is ac-
cepted as a program that can be car
ricd out. II conditions are not such as
10 interfere with the present progress.
Employees of the place are not expect
ing to be kept on the job more than
the end OF 1915, or perhaps "a little
later The dam will not be completed
by the spring Of 1915, but II should
be high enough b. that time. barring
Al oil 8ttss Nu
viii be needed for irrigation.
Work Progresses.
work on the great structure Is go-
Ing forward night and day. the men
Working az night by electric light that
makes the place as bright as day.
Everything IL now in such order that
there Is no hitch In any OF tho work.
An experimenting has been discontin-
ued and the work established on "A
sound basis. II Is nov merely a case
ot keeping al IT, and this Is being
done. The quarry force Is turning out
the rock as fast as the men down In
the bed OF the river can use %; the
train crews are hauling the rock to
the dam site as fast as II Is taken out
and the eeavatng crew Is making
good Roadway IN removing the dirt
from the bottom of the river Somd
81 the rovSs that are going Into the
dam weigh several tons ana two OF
them make a carload. They are load
ed at the quarry into immense iron
things looking like an immense
shovel then showed down Ia the brink
uf the river on the cars and there
lifted In the big iron shoyeis by the
big iron grabhooks that work back
ana forth across the river. and are
lowered To where they are needed,
Around these big rocks, the smaller
crushed rocks and cement are poured.
These immense rocks are called am
ohurs and are used to give added
weight ana stability To the dam
COncr ibasn reinforced.
Tho concrdam above the cXcaVa-