The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1914-01-30

0Oo yards in the cut, which is the rec.
ORD for one day in that division
Steam shovel No. 25T working at Ga.
tun took out 5,554 yards in one day.
the highest record in the canal zone
Tor one shovel. the date being May >.
1872. and in August. 1912. the same
snoVel made record by removing Sc.
S44 yards i'll twenty-six working DAYS.
That part of the central division
winch Is little mentioned extends from
the Gatun locks to the entrance of the
CuleDra cut. about twenty-three miles
Only about 100000 yards had to be
eXcavated to complete this channel, as
1t follows the Chagres river valley
from about sea level to Bohio; then
the level rises until it reaches forty,
eight feet above sea level at the cut
FROM Gatun to ObiSpo the Chagres
crossed the line of the canal twenty
three times In the same distance the
Chagres river has twenty-six tributa-
r1eS. the more important ones being the
Gatun and Trinidad rivers. All con
tribute to the great Gatun lake.
The slides, which have been accu.
rately and inaccurately exploited in
the press, represented the steep sides
Oh the Culebra cut breaking off and
falling down into the excavated part
4 Even where the cut has been sunk
through solid rock these slides occur
red, as the rock formations of the
1sthmuS are brittle and dissolve to dust
after exposure to the atmosphere. All
attempt was made to prevent slides by
plastering the sides of the cut with
concrete, but the experiments were
futile. There were between fifteen
and twenty important slides on both
sides of the nine mile cut, the largest
being on the west side of the canal
near the town of Culebra and embrac-
ing sixty-three acres. Around the
towns of Culebra and Empire were
many smaller slides that gave much
trouble to the engineers Steam shov-
els. locomotives and fiat cars have been
caught in these slides, but, singularly,
few lives have been lost.
Sometimes the pressure on the sides
of the canal operated to make the earth
bulge up in the bottom of the cut. Di-
vision Engineer Gaillard devised the
plan of terracing the sides of the cut
to relieve this pressure, with the result
that much extraneous material has
been prevented from sliding into the
cut. Engineers who formerly stood
stanchly for the sea level type Of ca
nal after seeing the slides of the pres
ent eighty-f1ve foot level lock type
were forced to admit that the attempt
to sink cut through the isthmus for
a sea level channel would be attended
by such prodigious earth movements,
necessitating such an inestimabIe ad-
ditional excavation, as to make it we'll
nigh impossible. For a sea level canal
the Culebra cut would have to go
eighty-f1ve feet deeper than in the
present plan, which would require both
wider bottom and indefinitely wider
surface opening. and then the slides
would be UNNECESSARILY greater than
at present. The best years work in
the Culebra cut was 16,5S6s91 yards.
Slides first and last have added more
than that amount to the total estimate
Of excavation for the division. Yet the
increase in efficiency of the organiza-
ton has enabled the workers to handle
the extra amount within the time and
cost estimated for taking out the orig
inal yardage.
Three methods of excavation have
been employed in digging the seven
miles Of sea level channel on the At
lantic side and the eight miles of sim
liar channel on the Pacific side. Steam
shOvels dug down on the Atlantic side
to forty feet below sea level with great
bikes to hold out the water, and dpedges
have done the remainder of the exca-
waiting. On the Pacific side, in addi-
ton to dredges and shovels, the n.y.
draulic method has been used This
method consists Of playing a powerful
stream of water on the earth and drain
ing the water with the soil in q fluid
state to a selected dump which has
been boarded. the water being drained
off when the mud has deposited The
~AIAethIiN lSiul1SO al SACttN IL
ton of 47,523,00O cubic yards and the
Pacific entrance $685.. 900 yards.
1t is planned to take the great dredge
Corozal through the channel and locks
up into the Culebra cut for the work
of handling slides and silt after the
water is turned into the cut.
Terminal works at Balboa requiring
more than 100000 yards excavation
and finishing details of the canal chan
mel proper will bring the total excava-
ton by March, 1914, when the canal
is expected to be in regular CONNER
cial use. to 22l,O00,000 cubic yards.
In the late Spring of 1912 the press
in the United States exploited the dis
covery of volcanic formations in the
bottom of the Culebra cut. The engi-
neers have not been alarmed by these
vaporous emissions, which We're caus-
ed, according to the commission geol-
Dgist, by the warm atmospheric effect
upon pyrite material