Experience with a Submerged Pipe Line in the Puerto Barrios Water Works

Abstract

Puerto Barrios is the Atlantic seaport of Guatemala, the most populous of the Central American republics. For many years the rich interior sought a railroad connection to this outlet, finally realizing it in 1908. The president, Manuel Estrada Cabrera, recognized that the strip of sand-edged swamp called Barrios was destined to become important, and at the inauguration of the railroad in January, 1908, solicited a proposition for the complete sanitation of the port, that it might become in appearance, convenience and healthfulness, worthy of its importance as the eastern gateway of the republic. A substantial appropriation for the necessary studies and for provisional cleaning, ditching and other works of sanitation was made. The writer was designated to prepare the report and estimate of cost. The report presented in the spring of 1909, called for about 3,000,000 cubic yards of filling, a sea wall, drains, sewers, water system, pavements and parks. The total cost proved too great for immediate execution. At the date mentioned, the terminal comprised a wharf, railroad station, round house, hotel, custom house, government house and a few scattered wooden residences, with a beach line of thatched cabins. The water supply depended upon rain-water cisterns and a 2-inch pipe well deriving water from a stratum of coarse sand 100 feet below the surface at a point about half a mile inland. Natural growth of traffic and population brought the place face to face with a water famine, forcing the railroad company to introduce an adequate supply. The most available source was a mountain stream 7| miles away, as measured by a practicable land line, or 5§ miles by a route in part across an arm of the bay. The submerged portion on the latter route was about 15,000 feet in length. The water attained a maximum depth of 24 feet. The bottom was