| OCR Text |
Show dam was finished on September 13, 1963. Water storage, initiated in March 1963, was sufficient by September 1964 to allow initial generation of power. By the end of September 1965, five of the eight 112,500-kilowatt generators being installed under the completion contract were in commercial operation, with Unit No. 6 scheduled to go on the line during October and Units 7 and 8 following at four-month intervals. Construction of a permanent visitor center complex on the right abutment of the dam - a joint undertaking of the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service - was started during the summer of 1965. Installation of Permanent Concrete Plug in Diversion Tunnel at Glen Canyon Dam Subsequent to commencement of construction of Glen Canyon Dam, the water and power interests in the Lower Colorado Basin prevailed upon the Secretary of the Interior to effect a change in the design of the temporary control gates located in the left diversion tunnel on the premise that the gates, as previously contemplated, were not of sufficient capacity to effectively drain the reservoir in the event drought conditions demanded release of storage water to satisfy existing downstream consumptive uses. Larger gates were provided at an estimated additional cost of approximately $1.5 million. Upon initiation of the filling procedure, under the Secretary's "General Principles" these gates were to remain in operating condition which caused a delay in the final sealing of the diversion tunnel. The prime contractor was therefore relieved of this item in his contract. On the day following acquisition of the minimum power pool (elevation 3490 ft) at Lake Powell, and with rated power head (elevation 1123 ft) regained at Lake Mead bids were called for installing the tunnel plug and permanently sealing the gates and gate chamber. The successful bidder, S. S. Mullin, Inc., of Seattle, was awarded the job on August 6, 1965 at a bid price of $1,535,333.13. His work is to be completed June 19, 1966. It is estimated that this delay involves an added expenditure of approximately $644,000 to the cost of Glen Canyon Dam. Work preparatory to the installation of the tunnel plug was underway on September 30, 1965. With the tunnel plug closed there will be a permanent entrapment of 2,082,000 acre-feet below the river outlets. 71 |
