The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1922-01-24
TO DII'ERT RIVER
THROUGH n HILL
To Enable New England Power Co. 4
Build a Huge Storage Reservoir
in whitinghsm.

Bratflehoro. Jan. "a, Equipment ~
being gotten together for the work,
which viii be begun before the end Of
this week, OF blasting a tunnel through
a hillside in the town Of WhitinghaIns
in the southwestern part Of Windham
county. through which TO divert the
Decrfeld river while big earth dam
200 feet high Is being built by the New
England Power company to create a
vast storage reservoir The contractor
for building the tunnel II the Rollin
Construction corporation OF Boston,
which recently has built power plants
in Rochester, n. VI, and Kansas City,
and whose men all have been trained
in work similar to the WhitinEhaH
lob on New York and Boston subways.
~-sFfrise fiFe tunnel il being construct
ed preliminary work will be done by
the New England Power company SO
that the dam can be built as soon as
possible. The Rollin Construction cor
poration will employ about 250 men
aud the New England Power company
will employ enough TO bring the total
up to between 600 and 700 by next
August.
The tunnel will be 1000 feet long
and % feat in diameter, and all but
100 feet Of IL will be cut through rock
by electrically driven air eompressors
and drills, and the material will be re.
moved BY small steam shovels. The
contract rallsy for the completion Of the
tunnel BY July Of this year.
After the river has been diverted
past the site Of the dam the power
company win begin hauling in dirt
from 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 viii be a
quarter of mile thick tiaas y, Il
will extend that distance up and down
the river bed, and IL viii narrow down
gradually TO 40 feet through at the
top.
This dam will get back the main
branch OF the Deerfield river over 10
miles, to the edge of Wilmington viz
laqe. and will necessitate relocating
Z hat much of the Hoosac Tunnel and
Wilmington railroad II viii food out
Whitingham station, which will be
moved about mile nearer Whiting
ham. and will flood out the Mountain
Mills dam and pulp mill near WI
mington.
The exact location of the dam - TO
be half = mile below Nottingham sta
ton. at Davis bridge. for the present
Il is to be known as the Davis bridge
developmenf. The construction OF the
dam will require 100000 yards Of
earth.
In the fall of 1928 a power plant
viii be built below the dam for devel-
oping 10000 horsepower. and the dam
will be completed early in 1924 so as
to catch the spring food that year. The
purpose of the dam. however, is not 20
much 10 develop 10000 horsepower ss
n Is TO create an immense storage res
eryoir TO be drawn on for cqualiziag
the power AZ FIVE other stations ON the
Deerfeld owned by the New England
Power company. which j. the largest
distributor Of electrical energy ia New
England
The company j. about completing an
earth dam 80 feet high and 500 feet
long on the Deerfield rivcr al sears
burg. which was begun June J OF ias;
wear and on which $50 men were EN-
pIoved. From tins dam the water =
to lrc conveyed through = wood siave
pipe eight feet in diameter and four
miles long to a hydro -electrical unit oi
900 kilowatt capscity farther down
the rivcr. securing 30 feet Of effective
iaa1