Government Irrigation Work During the Month 



The Roose 



velt Dam 



A message was received 

 at the office of the Recla- 

 mation Service Decem- 

 ber 14 stating that a flood carrying 

 about 60,000 second feet of water had 

 swept down upon the Roosevelt dam 

 in Arizona. The contractor saved al- 

 most all of his machinery. Another 

 report received the following day con- 

 veys the assurance that no actual dam- 

 age to the dam itself was sustained, 

 but that there would be a delay in the 

 work of about a month in clearing out 

 the pit. 



Probably no engineering work in 

 this country has attracted more atten- 

 tion than the construction of the 

 Roosevelt dam, which is being erected 

 by the Government in Salt River. The 

 contractor, J. M. O'Rourke, of Gal- 

 veston, Texas, laid the first stone of 

 the dam on September 20, and the 

 Government officials have watched 

 with almost breathless interest as 

 block by block the great curve of stone 

 has steadily grown, and it is with a 

 sense of relief news is received that 

 the dam has reached a point where it 

 can withstand with little damage the 

 sudden floods which have repeatedly 

 destroyed the works during the past 

 year. 



The dam wil be 294 feet high and 

 800 feet long on top, and will form a 

 lake 25 miles long with a capacity of 

 1,300,000 acre- feet. The work is pro- 

 gressing rapidly, and it is expected 

 that water will be furnished for irri- 

 gation during the season of 1907, al- 

 though the completion of the dam will 

 require a much longer time. A brief 

 summary of the work completed to 



date shows that a power canal 19^ 

 miles long, with a drop of 220 feet is 

 completed and furnishing power to 

 operate the cement mill and for use in 

 constructing the dam. Of tunnels 10,- 

 400 linear feet have been constructed, 

 40 bridges built, and 68 structures, 

 such as headworks, flumes, and cul- 

 verts, completed. A cement mill with 

 a capacity of 350 barrels a day has 

 been erected and 43,000 barrels of first 

 class cement have been manufactured. 

 The saw mill 30 miles up the canyon 

 has cut about three million feet board 

 measure of lumber for use in the va- 

 rious structures. One hundred and 

 thirty-five miles of road have been 

 built and about one hundred miles of 

 telephone installed. The work so far 

 accomplished involved the excavation 

 of 975,000 cubic yards of material, the 

 'laying of 38,000 cubic yards of con- 

 crete, the driving of 20,000 linear feet 

 of piling, and drilling and boring 3,560 

 feet. When completed the project will 

 reclaim more than 200,00 acres of des- 

 ert land. 



Owing to the cold weath- 



FouJche Work er > work on the dam em " 

 bankment, Belle Fourche 



irrigation project. South Dakota, has 

 been discontinued and probably will 

 not be taken up again before April. 

 The total progress on this embank- 

 ment to date is 219,000 cubic yards. 

 The closing down of work on the dam 

 made available a large force of men 

 for other work. The men employed 

 by different contractors, as well as 

 those under the direct supervision of 

 the Government engineers, have been 



