The Boulder Dam and its Equipment

Abstract

IN Engineering for January 1 is a well-illustrated introduction to a series of articles which will deal with the mechanical, hydraulic and electrical features of Boulder Dam. These articles will be written by Mr. P. A. Kinzie, Mr. J. A. Winter and Mr. L. N. McClellan, who have each been responsible for some part of the equipment for the control and utilization of the water impounded by the Boulder Dam, which is not inappropriately described as “the greatest engineering effort of its kind in history”. It was on December 21, 1928, that President Coolidge signed the Boulder Dam Act, which provided for the construction of a great dam on the Colorado River. The scheme had several objects. First, it was intended to prevent the serious floods which menaced the fertile district of the Imperial Valley; secondly, to conserve water for use in the same district during the hot dry summers; and thirdly, to provide a public water supply for the coastal cities of Southern California. The river has a length of approximately 1,700 miles, and drains an area slightly more than double the area of Great Britain. The site for the dam was chosen in Black Canyon about 300 miles upstream from the river mouth, a barren and inhospitable region, the character of which is well shown by the photographs in Engineering. The dam itself was completed in the summer of 1935. From the lowest portion of the foundation to roadway level it is 726 feet high; it is 660 feet thick at the base and 45 ft. thick at the crest, and contains about 6,600,000 tons of concrete. It is composed of massive vertical columns about 230 in number, interlocking both vertically and horizontally. Recently, the water impounded in the reservoir, Lake Mead, was estimated at ten billion gallons.