The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1922-08-24
BIG PROJECT
Is PROGRESSING
Scene Of Construction Activity for : ee
Miles Along Hood River is
Unprecedented

Unprecedented construction ivity
is now in progress for thr = miles
along the hanks Of Hood river 3 medi-
ately south of the city where 2 Phoe-
nix Utility Co. is engaged in .@ 1struc-
ting 81 ,250, 900 hydr0-elect lystem,o
which will develop around L 3 horae-f
power, for the Pacific PoW11 e Light
Co.
About 500 men are now engaged on
the task, ana this number, it is antici-
pated, will be increased to 800 when
the construction concern begins to lay
the big 1900 foot pipe line to carry
the water from q dam to be built
across the river just south of the
switchback on the line Of the MI. Hood,
X. r. Co. to the plant, excavations for
which are being made less than quar-
ter of mile south of the city. The
men are about equally divided between
two camps. one at Powerdale but a
short distance from the lower end of
the works and the other near the dam
site.
The construction concern is now
rushing the concrete piers which will
carry the pipeline. the upper end of
which will be 10 feet in diamter. The
pipe, 2,000 feet of which will be Of
steel, will be reduced to eight and six
feet toward the lower end. A surge
tank 2lO feet high will be constructed
at the plant.
A noteworthy characteristic of the
crews employed on the big job is that
they are practically all Americans. y
Many of the workers are ex-service
men, and foremen Of all departments
declare that the veterans are among
their steadiest and test employees.
The work will last throughout the
winter. 1t is planned to have the
wheels Of the new turbines turning by
April !, 1928.
The construction company has great
|ly facilitated its work by leasing
link of the Mt. Hood line from the city
to the switchback. At the terminus
of the leased section materials are fed
into chutes and bunkers for loading on
to a narrow guage road. which crosses
the river. The little rail line is used
in hauling materials to the damsite.
and in distributing materials along the
west bank of Hood river, where the
greater length of the pipeline will be
laid. The line will cross Hood river
on steel bridge constructed several
years ago.
The construction company has won
the good will of merchants Of Hood
River by adopting policy Of purchas-
ing all materials possible here. The
aggregate of supply bills at local
stores last month reached $40. 000 The
payroll for the half month ending Aug-i
ust 10 reached $29, 2O6. 81. according to
George Mackenzie, who ia in charge OF
the Office Of the company. 1t is esti-
mated that the payrolIs Of the next
two months will run $40, 900 per month.
No commissary department of any sort
is operated by the construction com-
pany at the camp, and the men do all
OF their purchasing from Hood River
stores. Not even a barbershop is oper-
ated at the camps. A Golfer dam has
been constructed at the damsite. di-
verting the water from half OF the
river bed. A crew of men is now en-
gagged in excavating for the new dam.
A huge rockcrusher has been erected
midway of the construction work, and
the material is distributed along the
works by rail. The crueher is operated
night and day, in order to keep the
crews supplied with material. A huge
bar of small rocks has been washed
down from the headwaters OF the
stream to point above the dam Of an
old plant on the river. These are
dipped from the river bed by a huge
bucket and carried by highline to the
crusher. Night crews are also busy
pouring concrete in the pipeline cradle
along the line Of the Mount Hood X.
R. Co. Night work is preferable for
this work because Of the constant in-
terruption during the daytime.