The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1922-07-25
POWER co. TO BUILD
PERMANENT TUNNEL
Extensive Addition to Original Project
Now Under Way In Town
OF WhItinuham.

W WHhlHHndHls
In order to obtain the greatest pos
sIble hydro.electric development from
Ythe great storage reservoir which the
New England Power Co. Is having con.
structed on the Deerfield river just
south OF Nottingham station, the com
pany has just awarded the contract
for an extension OF the 1.600-foot tun.
mel now being bored into the bank
OF the river for diverting the flow OF
the stream around the site of the dam
to give dry bed for the construction
OF the dam. The extension will be
about 10000 feet long, or nearly two
and a half miles, and will add about
$l,250.000 to the cost OF the so-called
Nottingham project. The exact cost
OF the whole project cannot he stat
ed, as the contracts are awarded on a
unit basis, but the esetimate Is around
$1,000. 900.
The Power Co is to build an i'm
mense earth dam on the Deerfield riv.
er at Davis Bridge in the town OF
Nottingham. which will change the
face OF nature by covering the wood
ed banks Of the river northward to
the edge of Wilmington village. The
dam is to be built OF earth and will
be 200 feet high and 1900 feet long,
l,4OO feet thick at the base. For
several months work on the project
has been In progress, and within a
few days actual construction work on
the dam will be begun
The original plan was to tunnel
around the site Of the dam to send
the water through the tunnel SO II
would not interfere with work on the
dam, and this part of tn project is
well toward completion. The tunnel
is 20 feet in diameter and about 500
feet long.
After the contract for this tunnel
was awarded, which went to the Rollin
Construction Co. of Boston, the Power
co. decided to build longere tunnel
through which the water would flow
permanently, which would give a
greater fall and thus Increase the de.
velopment and the efficiency of The
project. and the e contract for the new
tunnel, which will extend through the
rock and ribbed embankment two and
half miles down the river to Sher-
man, also in the town of Whitingham.
has been awarded to the Mason.Hang.
ar Construction Co. of New York 1t
VIII be IA feet in diameter and will be
lined with cement.
rms change necessitated the erec.
ton OF power station at Sherman In.
stead of at Davis Bridge. 1t will in.
crease the New England Power Co s
yearly output about 10000. 900 kilo-
watt hours, whereas a power station
at Davis Bridge would yield an in.
crease of only los, 5,000,G 600 kilowatt
hours. 1t VIII increase the head from
200 feet to $50 feet.
The dam itself will require about
2,O0O,O0O cubic yards of fill. which will
be taken from the river banks. huled
out on trestles and dumped. The fine
silt Will be washed into the center for
core and will be impervious, as is
the case at the big earth dam at the
Somerset reservoir.
The Davis Bridge reservoir will con.
tain, when filled. about As 900, 600 900
gallons OF water and will necessitate
an entire relocation of the Hoosac
Tunnel & Wilmington railroad from
there to Wilmington and will flood ont
Mountain Mills at Wilmington.
some Idea OF what the Davis Bridge
dam means to the company can be OBJ.
tanned by comparing its development
with that at the Vernon dam, where
the yearly capacity is about 244, 200 600
kilowatt hours.
About 1000 men are EMPLOYED at
the Davis Bridge works, and more are
expected. The dam is being built by
the w, F. Carey Co of New York.
The New England Power Co.'S dam
at Somerset controls 81 of the 1856
square miles of drainage area. The
Whitingham dam will control the re-
naming 154 square miles.