Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1922-01-27
TO BUILD Big DAM
IN WHITINCHAM
Will Necessitate 1,600-Foot Tun-
mel Mostly Through Rock
Deerfield River to BE Set Back to Flood
Out Mountain Mills at Wilmington
Work Starts.

WYNN tDtehto'
In order to establish an immense stor-
age reservoir on the Deerfeld river from
Nottingham north to Wilmington the
New England Power Co. Is making
preparations to build an earth dam 200
feet, high across the river below Whiting
ham station. The first step, aside from
some preliminary work, is to drive q
tunnel through hillside in order to di-
vert the river, and the Power Go. has
lust awarded the contract for this work
to the Rollin Construction Corp. OF
Boston, which is getting equipment TO-
gether preparatory to starting the work
Corp recently built power plants in
Rochester, y. Y, and Kansas City, and
its men all have been trained on New
York and Boston subways in work SINH
lar to that of the Nottingham job.
| The Rolin Construction Corp. will
employ about go men and the New
! England Power Co. will employ enough
more to bring the total up to between
600 and 700 by next August a month
after the tunnel is completed. Mean
while the Power Go. has good number
of men doing such preliminary work as
is necessary.
The tunnel will be about 1000 feet
| long and - feet in diameter. At the
upper portal there is about 100 feet of
| tdTNU W NE tut tHIouSH, Dub dslut lIOui
| that the tunnel will be driven through
rock by the use of electrically driven air
compressors and drills and dynamite
blasts, and the material will be removed
from the tunnel by the aid of small
steam shovels. This work is to be com
pleted by July /, according to the con
tract. and the general superintendent
Thompson.
After tho river has been diverted past
the site of the dam the Power Co. will
begin hauling in dirt from borrow pits
on the neighboring hillsides by standard
gauge trains for building an earth dam
200 feet high and a quarter of mile
long. The base of the dam will be a
quarter of a mile thick, that is, it will
extend that distance up and down the
river bed, and it will narrow down grad
ually to 40 feet through at the top.
About 100000 yards of earth will
be required in making the fill for the
dam, and it will be excavated from the
hilsides by steam shovels. The dam
will be of the same type of construction
as the Somerset dam built by the Power
: Co.
= This dam will set back the main
, branch of the Decrfeld river over 10
miles, to the edge of Wilmington village
and will flow out Nottingham station
and the Mountain Mills dam and pulp
c mill near Wilmington 1t has been de
cided to move the station about mile
nearer the village, which will make i
more convenient for Nottingham peopl'
las the station will be close to the village
The dam is to be half mile below
Nottingham station, at Davis Bridge, and
the project is known as the Davis Bridge
development. The site is in deer
$ notch, which makes an ideal spot for
creating the reservoir. The timber is to
hn clpnr off on1 hiUhyra We Ii.
Gated. and it will be necessary to re-lo-
cate 10 miles or more of the Hoosac
Tunnel 4 Wilmington railroad. The
2 former owners of the railroad have sold
, the road to interests favorable to the de-
velopment project. The truck will be
laid on the shore of the reservoir
/ In the fall of 1923 a power plant will
| be built below the dam for developing
; 10000 horse power, and the dam will
: he completed early in 1924 so as TO catch
the spring flood of that year. The pur-
7 pose of building the dam. however. is
not so much to develop the 10000 horse
power as it is to create an immense stOr-
age reservoir TO be drawn on for equal
i2ing the power at five other stations on
' the Deerheld river owned by the New
England Power Co, which is the larg.
est distributor of electrical energy in
New England. These five plants are
Nos. ., 3, and 4 Mt Sheburne Falls
Mass. No. 5 at Monroe Bridge. Mass.
| and No. ut Readsboro, Vt. The prin-
, cipal benefit is to be derived from stor-
, age.
I Many engineers have visited the Deer
field valley looking for dam sites, for
, concerns other than the New England
Power Co., but in each instance the es-
timated expense has been too high to
warrant the undertaking as an indie
pendent proposition. but for the pur-
: pose of linking up the development with
the existing plants of the New England
Power Co the project from financial
point OF view apparently is justified, al
though no estimate of the probable cost
is available Mt present.
The Power Co. some time ago began
accommodating material and equipment
for constructing the dam and built a
camp for the workmen. The camp will
} be greatly enlarged within a short time.
With reservoir 10 miles long ere
ated, the town of Wilmington ought to
derive benefit as summer resort, be-
! cause the lake, while it will be drawn
? down to certain extent. never will be
emptied as some artificial lakes are.
In the next month the New England
Power Go. will complete development
project in Searsburg, on the Deer6cld
river in Bennington county, where an
earth dam 30 feet high and 800 feet
: this dam was begun June /, 1921, and
, at one time about $50 men We're en-
plOyed.
The Searsburg dam is about half a
mile north of the site of the Searsburg
postofiice, which was burned recently.
, There is a concrete spillway on the right
, bank of the river.
T At the dam the river is diverted
through pipe eight feet in diameter,
built of wood slaves. This pipe is four
miles long and runs along the hillside at
an easy grade. 1t crosses under the
r Bennington and North Adams roads and
terminates on hillside. near the
Heather place. From there>a steel pen
stock leads down to power house on
) the bank of the river, 500 feet away.
This power house contains one hydro
electrical unit of 5000 kilowatt (capac-
ity. The. development yields go feet Of
, effective head,
From the point where the long wooden
pipe line connects with the steel pen
stock Il short line runs to a large steel
surge tank which serves to relieve the
pressure and prevent water hammer in
case II becomes necessary to stop the
Hn oil L., T..