f
DIRT FLIES ON CITY'S NEW RESERVOIR SYSTEM
-t :
- . .
- ...,
4
l,OOKI(i "IT OVKR SITK OK
I.OWKR KiiKKVOIK AO. .
D
IRT Is flylnc up on Mount Tabor, and
, wonderful rwervolr system la com
ing Into being couth of Tabor
i Heights at Mount Tabor Park. Mn and
. tun and steam nhovels nill race aealnat
' time all thia Winter and Spring and part
c.f next Summer, scooping out yawning
holes In the ground and building strong
. oarth and concrete embankment around
them, no that Portland may have more
wntor.
Ronda have been aold by the city to
' ray for two gigantic new storage reser
voln to hoM. one 50.OuO.OPO gallons, the
other 73.orVw gallons. When this work
. V done. Portland will have nearly dou-
bl the water in storage there is now. ami
. will b- able to supply a city of 30U.OUO for
' a week and more In case of accident to
the Bull Ron pipeline.
Portlands water supply Is adequate
now. In fact, there Is being wasted every
ly some 4.O0O.OUP gallons that goes Into
the sewer over the weir of the old res
' ervoir on Mount Tabor. But there is not
enough storage capacity to take care of
the city's needs much more than three
days in an emergency, and in Summer
' time parts of the Rast tilde suffer be
cause the supply In the malnj Is not
i enough for every -Jay use. And Portland
i Is growing at a rapid rate, and will need
: more and more water. When the new
.project la completed, however, the city
-an live a week without a drop of water
' coming from the mountains.
Fcmr Reservoirs at Present.
At present there are four reservoirs,
the total capacity of which Is about 66.
oii.Ci.l gallons. Of these No. 1 Is on
Mount Tabor, near where the new onee
will be built: No. 2 Is In South Mount ,
v.,..-.'. " VW.
f (' .
tjTrtjr a 7os&? Gas
Tabor. at the intersection of the Section
IJne road and West avenue, or East Six
tieth street; Nos. 3 and 4 are in the City
Park. Nos. 5 and S are to be built near
.Xo.,1. forming with Noa. 1 and 2 a sys
tem equal to any on the Coast, at a cost
to the city of 1447.000.
Nature has aided in the work of cpn
truetlng the upper of these new storage
; tanks. In the hills of what was at one
time the Prettymnn donation land claim.
later called the Hosford tract, and still
l later In part the Pittock tract, she has
j hollowed out a huge basin. This will be
' still further scooped out. lined with con
crete, stopped up with a 60-foot dam at
the lower end. and when- it Is all done,
' the oval tank will be the new No. I res
I ervoir. TOO feet long and 460 feet across,
i The rim of thU bowl Is to be 440 feet
' above Portland's base, which is approxl-
mately sea level. The bottom will be 30
feet above the base. To scoop out the
hole for the water, about 210.000 cubic
! yards of earth will have to be removed.
' enough to make a mound on a cKy block
I 14 feet high.
Then something like 7E0 cubic yards of
i concrete masonry must "be put in an
amount which would build sidewalks six
I Inches thick on both sides of Hawthorne
' avenue from the river to Fiftieth street.
Park to IV Made on Hills.
When this reservoir is all finished. It
will be one of the show places of Port
land, for the city owns land on the hills
around the basin, and it is understood
the intention is to make a park of this
property. At the top of the containing
wall will be a driveway, or Derm, around
the oval. 30 feet wide, with a coping two
feet high on the Inside, and from the
I outer eflre of this drive a rolled erabank
t nient will rise to the top of the hills.
The lower reservoir, .No, t, is to be to
z j
?
- J
.v'
rzus nf jck.o
the form of a rectangle, and In this, aa
in the other, nature has helped the con
tractor. The site for this basin is a flat
space, now given over to berry patches
and orchards. To hold the 75.000,000 gal
lons of water which will flow into it
from No. 6, the upper reservoir, a wall
varying from 135 feet in thickness at the
bottom to ten feet at the top will be
built of earth and lined with concrete.
This embankment will be 36 feet high,
probably, but It has been proposed to
lower this basin ten feet. In which case
a large amount of excavatins: will be nec
essary. This point will be settled by the
Water Board.
On the back wall of this lower reser
voir will be a 30-foot roadway, narrowing
to ten feet on the sides and on top of the
front wall. Steps will lead to the top of
the wall from the center of the West
avenue side, which Is the front. More
digging- and building will be necessary
here than on the upper basin even, for
330.000 cubld yards of earth must come
out, and 13.P30 cubic yards of concrete
masonry will be needed.
Vast Anionnt of Excavation Needed.
If the Oregonlan building and the Meier
& Frank building were placed across the
street from each other, the earth taken
from this reservoir would fill the space
between them five times, even with the
tops of the buildings, and there would
still be enough left more than to fill the
tower of the Oregonlan building from
the street to the top. The concrete would
make a solid mass nine feet high If
placed on a city block, or a single stone
larger than the Arlington Club building.
No. S reservoir is .to be 8H feet long by
633 feet wide, inside measurements, so
that If one walked clear around the top
of the wall, he would have to go more
than half a mile. The surface of the
" rjr. . v: - . .....
1 '
4 v
" f
x - . m. . .. .
' "i xrf. v .. . V-x.''
X . -x. . ... - T' ' x.:.- '-'"X 'xl.'
r:r;h;- :ri kvv
M sx- . v ,.fV.. '- r -yut
A'
i7 fr
'3
. : '
....
II 'Mm
- 'it
U
. iOj$ii ii'
a x
. 7 rw
1J. .x, J . x-ixnW.) ' '
-'xAf v .r ..t
WW
BOX
J.? "A
?j rt ' r r u JXV
..... -.y.. J
7, y
f -V"'-, . y-A
. . .( ? " r- '-.r -:
1
Men and Teams and Steam
Time to Give Portland More Water.
b
id
mi
ai
water will form a lake of 12S acres, or
two square miles. Walking along West
avenue, or -East Sixtieth street, at the
foot of the retaining wall, one will have
a Journey of 970 feet.
Last week Robert Wakefield & Co. and
the Pacific Bridge Company, which have
the contract to construct these reser
voirs, started on their race against time
to get them done, for by the terms of the
contract the upper reservoir, or No. 6,
must be finished by July 1,' 1910. and No.
S must be ready for the water to be
turned in by October 31. 1910. Hurry is
an essential feature in this work, for if
delays occur, so that No. 6 is not com
pleted by July 1, the contractor must
pay a penalty of t.50 each day up to
July 15, when this amount will be in
creased to $500 a day.
Bonus for Speedy Work. "
If No. 6 Is not done by October 21, a
penalty of $250 a day is teed. On the
other hand, if the work is finished ahead
of time, for every day before July 1 that
No. 6 is ready for water, the contractor
Is to get $260, and if the -remarkable
speed is attained to complete this basin
before June 15, an addiitonal bonus ol
$250 a day is to be allowed. The specifi
cations for this -big work were prepared
under the supervision of D. D. Clarke,
City Engineer.
So early last week men and teams be
gan the work of clearing the ground on
the site of No. 6. Soon the steam shovels
will gouge out the dirt. All the trees
and brush have been removed, and some
buildings have been torn down. Others
that happened to be In the way will be
moved to" locations beyond the walls.
Portland's onward march will brook no
interference from her cltisens, and. those
that happen to be In the way must get
out. The bouse known as the "old Plt-
Shovels Begin Race Against
tock house. which Ftooa on a hill at
the left as one looks up the gorge where
the dam will be. Is to be torn down. Two
other houses on the other side will be
moved. One of these has been occupied
by E. T. Peterson, a son-in-law of Kev.
C. O. Hoeford, who owned part of the
land the reservoirs will occupy, and who
built the "old Plttock house." Several
bams and smaller buildings have had to
go to make way for the contractor.
A wonderful storage system this will
be when it is completed. Water will flow
from each higher reservoir to the one
lower, but each will be independent ot
the others, so that In an emergency it
can be disconnected, as It were, and be
used by Itself. From Bull Run the water
Is taken through ten miles of 42-Inch
pipe, eight miles of 35-lnch and six miles
of 3l-lnch pipe into reservoir No. 1, which
holds 12,000.000 gallons. With about K
000,000 gallons coming In every day, this
basin is continually overflowing, so that
4,000.000 gallons go every day Into the
sewers.
Plenty of Water Sure.
From No. 1 a tunnel will be built 6K
feet long and three feet wide, leading
northwest into No. 6. After No. 5 Is
filled, with Its 60,000,000 gallons, the flow
will pass through pipes laid In a conduit
ten feet wide under the dam into No. S,
which will hold TE.000,000 gallons. This
tank also ha a pipe leading from No. 2,
which lies to the south, so it may be
filled from that also, which, in turn, is
filled from No. L No. 6 will have out
let into the large main In West avenue,
which supplies the high-pressure system
on the East Side, taking in the belt of the
Mount Tabor district. Rose City Park,
the Montavllla district, Barr road. East
Thirty-third street of Highland, part of
i
Irvington and Holladay Park, then north
west to Upper Albina and the Peninsula.
Reservoir No. 2 supplies the low-pressure
service of the East Side, but if No. 2
should give out, this can be filled from
No. 6. A bypass arrangement also in
sures water from No. 6 if an accident
should befall No. 6.
And what does all this mean to Port
land? Simply that no clly on the Coast
will have a better water system. Seattle
Is building reservoirs that will afford a
supply nearly equal to that of Portland,
while Los Angeles and San Francisco
have yet to construct their gravity sys
tems from the mountains. The present
reservoir capacity of the city Is &6.000.000
gallons, while the two new basins add
nearly double this amount. When .all Is
completed, Portland will have something
like 200,000,000 gallons of water In stor
age. Just now every person in the city
Is using about 80 gallons a day, or a total
of about 18,000.000 gallons In normal
weather. With only 6,000,000 gallons on
hand, a break in the supply pipe would
mean a water famine In less than four
days.
So the dirt Is flying up on Mount Tabor,
and a wonderful reservoir system Is com
ing Into being.
Sentenced.
New York Times.
"What ye up fr!" Squire ays h:
"Matrimony." ays Hank Lee,
Blushln' red ex he c'd be. '
"Stand up closter!" Squire, says he;
"Jlne hands llRht. an' look at me!
Sary Wllklns. what's er plea?"
"Speak up louder!" Squire says Ire.
"Life imprisonment '11 be
Sentence passed on both o' ye."
"At hard labor!" Squire, says he.
"Bailiff, let lh' prisoners be
Held, awaltln' shlwareel"
"An' ten dollars," Bquira. says he.
"Ker the court that sentenced ye
Next offender! .Who'll it bar'