Evening star., 1928-12-30
FLOOD Of. WATER
DELAYS BUILDERS
Contractors Encounter Un-
derground Lake in Driving
PiIing at Commerce Site.

Contractors are fighting what they
believe to be a great underground lake
below sea level, in a gravel bed under
the Department of Commerce Building
site between Fourteenth and Fifteenth
and B and E streets.
Pressure from this underground water
supply manifested itself when the first
pile was driven, and water spurted up
like miniature geyser. Since then
the Consolidated Engineering Co. con-
tractors for the piling and foundations,
has been resorting to pumps to check
the underground water pressure. Gut
ters in Fourteenth street have been run
ming almost full of the water pumped
from the excavation dug for a boiler
room along the Fourteenth street side.
Piling Is Weakened.
Experience with underground water
pressure in the Internal Revenue site,
south of the Post Office Department
Building, led Government inspectors to
recommend lowering of the water level
and pressure underground to facilitate
pile driving. Underground water pene-
trated the steel castings of the concrete
piles to such an extent at the Internal
Revenue site that many concrete piles
were ruined by water forced through
the castings from the bottom. Many
piles had mud instead Of cement on
top and had to be reinforced by addi-
tional piles driven alongside.
Now contractors on the Commerce
site are approaching the northern half
of the excavation with their pile-driving
rigs, and powerful pump has been set
up at the we'll which a deep-Sea diver
dug to a depth of SIS feet below the street
level, or about 80 feet below the floor
of the excavation. The floor OF the
entire excavation is now about 10 feet
| below sea level, and water is constantly
pressing upward, causing difficulty by
| forcing it's way through the steel cas-
ings for the concrete piles.
Evidences of a stream that some time
ran across the lot have been found,
especially in the we'll dug by the diver.
| He brought up stones and rock, well
| washed and rounded, as If by running
stream. BoulderS and similar rocks have
been brought up in other parts OF the
excavation. At one place along what
! may have been the bank of the stream
was excavated recently the trunk of a
big willow tree, many feet below the
surface. The wood, in good condition,
has been cut up into souvenirs.
Variation in the depth of water IN
| the holes of the excavation, particularly
in the divers well, have led to the
conjecture on the part of some that the
| tide from the Potomac comes back
underground. This, however, is moot
question, and others are inclined to
believe the alternating work of the
pumps has caused the variation in the
height of the water.
Underground Stream Found.
j. H. Elgin, general superintendent of
the Consolidated Engineering Co, be-
lieves there is an underground lake OF
water in the gravel strata under most
of the site, and that the water flows
underground from the northwest section
of the city toward the river. While
he was superintendent on the construc-
ton of the Mayf1ower Hotel. Elgin said,
workers struck solid rock for the
foundations, and came upon an under
ground stream which flowed in volume
several inches deep from north to south.
Some of this water encountered in the
Commerce site, he thinks. may be some
of the diverted stream which he found
| flowing under the Mayflower Hotel site.
About 5000 out of the total of $4,000
piles i'll the Commerce site have already
been driven, and work is well along on
pouring footings for the foundation, A
huge concrete shooting tower Is in
operation, capable of pouring about a
yard a minute.