The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-26
directing the Walls of the FiItrati

Because it is two miles or more
from the business district of Topeka,
few people in the city realize the mag
nitude of the job which is being car
ried on in the construction of the new
city filtration and pumping plant.
Work en- half a dozen varying
phases of the plants construction, is
being carried on simultaneously, and
has thus far met with the greatest
success. Good luck has been the
symbol of the job for nearly all the
companies engaged on it. Not all of
them. A few have had troubles of
their own, but for the most part the
work has gone more smoothly, rapidly,
and at less expense, than was antici-
pated.
The intake-the point from which
the water will be taken from the river.
is now approaching completion. It
will require between 625 and $50 tons
Of concrete for the intake.
Concrete Being Poured.
The intake requires a solid founda-
ton. So a solid mass of concrete thirty
feet long, fifteen feet wide, and ex-
tending down two feet into the solid
bed rock, is now being poured. The
concrete will go thirty-tWo feet below
low water mark, and the intake struc-
ture will extend above the flood mark
of 1903. On the concrete bed there
is a concrete chamber, below low
water level, into which the water will
pour from the river. Steel gates will
be set in the side of this chamber, so
arranged that they can be opened at
any depth, so as to take the water
from about one foot below the surface
of the river.
There is the best place to get the
water. The trash floats above, and
the sediment is below that point" City
fa ~ a
field says. The gates are adjustable,
so that the water can be taken al
this point regardless of the river stage.
From the chamber two twenty-four-
back on the bank. Either chamber
/ may be closed and cleaned, while the
other is used to supply water.
Can Store 1000, 900 Gallons.
There Is storage for a total of seven
million gallons of water IN the fill
| tration plant itself. Three million
| gallons can be contained in the clear
water weu.V The clear water WELL
| is not in the least like the W. k. ex-
| cavation in which hung the old oaken
| bucket. The we'll at the city filtra-
| ton plant is a huge, underground
chamber, with massive concrete pill
| lars supporting a cement covering.
| The chamber is sixteen feet high. and
! the top is level with the ground at the
| present time. When the plant is COM
/ plete, the concrete top VIII be COW
cred with two feet of earth and sod,
to keep the water under II cool
J A good sized convention could be
/ held in the clear water well. To
| traverse its vastness and listen to the
| echoes from its dark recesses is to
understand something or what the
| catacombs beneath ancient Rome are
! like. There are a few manholes in
| the concrete covering, but the day
light from them fails to illuminate
much of the interior. Away from a
| manhole, walking on the floor, it is
/ not well to let the imagination dwell
! on what would happen II the place
were to start to fill with water.
/ -Four million gallons more water ca n
/ be contained in the filter chambers
| themselves, west of the clear water
wen. The filter reservoirs are partly