OCR Text |
Show serve as inlets for the outlet works and the spillway tunnel are completed. Storage of water behind Blue Mesa Dam is scheduled to begin by the end of October 1965. Remaining work on the dam consists of placing facing material and riprap, surfacing the highway across the crest, and installing guard fences along the edge of the road. Although the powerplant structure is nearly complete, no generating units have been installed. Installation of the generating units and construction of the switchyard will be accomplished under a completion contract for which bids are to be opened on November 16, 1965. Clearing of Blue Mesa Reservoir, started early in 1965, was about 80 percent completed by the end of September. Construction of the Morrow Point Dam and Powerplant was started in 1963. The 465-foot-high dam will embody several features unique to Bureau of Reclamation dams. It will be the first thin arch, double curvature concrete dam built by the Bureau and will have a free-fall spillway over the center of the dam. Also, the first Bureau-built underground powerplant will be at Morrow Point. Major accomplishments during the reporting year include completion of the difficult access roads to the powerplant area and to the crest of the dam; completion of excavation for the dam foundation and key ways; good progress on excavation for the powerplant access tunnel, the underground powerplant, the penstock tunnels, and the stilling basin. The steep open cuts in the canyon walls were stabilized by a very extensive program of scaling and rock bolting. On September 3, 1965, all excavation for the dam foundation being completed, the first bucket of concrete was placed in Morrow Point Dam. This represents the first of 360,000 cubic yards needed to complete the structure. It is expected that the dam will be finished in the summer of 1967. Crystal Dam and Powerplant, third of the three major structures comprising the Curecanti Unit, moved into the construction stage in spring of 1965 with award of a contract for construction of a 6.5-mile-long access road to the damsite from the existing paved road into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument. By September 30, 1965, more than 80 percent of the road work had been accomplished. Present schedules call for invitation of bids for the dam and powerplant early in 1966, with completion four years later. The dam will be an earth- and rockfill structure 230 feet high and 660 feet long. Recreation Activities At Blue Mesa Reservoir, extensive recreational facilities are under National Park Service contract at the Center Point Site. 79 |