by Laurel | August 3rd, 2009
August 3, 1905, page 8
Excellent progress is being made on the new canal, which is to run from the second-level canal to the river, and furnish water-power for the new generating plant of the Holyoke water-power company. The grill-work under the arches was finished yesterday, and the seven concrete pillars that are to support the arches are under way. On these five ring brick arches will be laid and upon them the branch tracks of the Holyoke and Westfield and Boston and Main railroads will be placed. Temporary tracks have been laid elsewhere. The company struck an excellent bed of gravel in the excavating, and the grill, which consisted on the base layer of 8 by 12 timbers, are puddled in with this gravel, and above a second layer of heavy timbers are laid. On this double platform the concrete pillars are placed. There are seven of these, search about 90 feet long. Wings will be built on the canal side, and when the work is all done, the present spiling and retaining earth wall at the canal bank will be removed. The greater part of the work is being done on the concrete work at present, although a considerable number are at work on the lower side. There will be two levels to this big canal, the penstocks being laid in the lower level and water-sealed, it being the plan to have three feet or more of water over the four big 11-foot pipes all of the time. The power plant will be located on the downstream side of the new canal, partly in the bed of the river, and will be easy of access from the railroad tracks for coal and supplies. A coffer dam will be built on the river edge for the work that will be taken into the stream from the discharge. The water is high enough to cut off part of the road that had been used in excavating, and a new one was made. The first work on the new power plant will be the laying of the foundations for the big chimney. The new electrical apparatus that has been contracted for will not be ready for several months, and there appears to be that amount of work on hand, a least. Last Saturday there were 118 men employed on the work but about a score went into the mills Monday morning.
Excerpt from The Springfield Republican.
