Panama Canal.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 5, 1 March 1909, Page 165

Panama Canal.

Since the American Government took charge and substituted officers of the scientific branch of the military service for the civilians the work has made very great progress. The rate is apparently permanent, for the reports are now regularly signed by the same officer, Colonel Goethals, who is both chief engineer of the works and chairman of the Canal Commission. Throughout the States they are commenting on this fact, and on the statement of the chairman that for the first time in the history of the Canal the personnel of the staff has remained unaltered a whole year. One can judge from this contrast between the old and the new how nearly the canal project came to grief before the Government took hold of it. Stability of administration is thus no longer one of the crucial difficulties of the venture. Unhappily there are still difficulties, and there is in sight no way clear through them as yet. It is gratifying to find, however, that the works are being conducted with energy and efficiency. That is attested by the progress achieved. There are now, in addition to a fleet of dredgers, over 100 steam shovels at work, shovels which range from 45 tons to 95 tons in weight. The total quantity of material removed, rock and soft, dredged and excavated, exceeded 28 million cubic yards in the 12 months. Of this quantity, about 12 million cubic yards were removed from the Culebra division — that is to say, from the great "divide" in which the mass of the excavation lies. Now the Canal has cost the American management a good deal of money. The French company got eight millions for the

property, plant and goodwill. Since then, the project has cost fourteen millions and a half, apportioned as follows : — Works and engineering . . £5,600,000 Plant 6,000,000 Municipal Improvements. . 1,120,000 Sanitation 1,340,000 Administration . . . . 500,000 £14,560,000 The report does not continue longer in this work of chronicling pleasant things. The figures out of the way, we read that the old difficulty of the land slides has got to the front again. The Times condensation says : — ' ' Some difficulty has been experienced from land slides on the easterly side of the canal. The old slip at Cucaracha, which gave the French engineers so much trouble, as well as its smaller fellow at Paraiso, have both moved forward again, while two smaller slides have developed in the upper level of the Culebra cut. It is easy to make too much of these occurrences ; they are but part of the Nemesis which invariably overtakes interference on any large scale with Nature's methods, and bear no serious proportion to the importance of the undertaking. The slides are mainly in the rotten red clay which overlies the harder material, and it may be a question for the consideration of Colonel Goethals and his coadjutors whether a bolder policy in dealing with this treacherous material will not eventually prove to be the more economical and advantageous." The friendly commentator has given the number of these slides, which is larger, unfortunately, than it was in the time of the French; he has named their colour, he has described them as the inevitable Nemes ; s which overtakes those who interfere with the ways of Nature ; but all these particulars only suffice to broaden the appearance of disaster, and the call upon the engineer to take to some bolder but not described policy does not tend to mend matters in the least. There is, however, worse to come. The report, as condensed, continues: — "The first serious attempt to construct the dams, which form so salient a feature in the scheme which is being carried out, ended unfortunately. The seaward group of locks on the Pacific side was to be built at La Boca, at which place the actual tipping of material from Culebra was begun during the year, with the result that dam construction was found to be impracticable on the chosen site, that it consequently became necessary to abandon the whole of the work, preparatory and otherwise, which had been executed at the place, to change the general plan of the undertaking, and to find what is hoped will prove to be a more suitable site three miles further inland, at Miraflores. "Notwithstanding the very extensive investigation which had been made at the locale of the great dam at Gatun, further bormgs have revealed such a condition of things in the underlying strata that it has been determined, notwithstanding the optimistic opinion of the engineers who originally fixed upon this site for the dam, to drive a row of triple sheet piling across the valley of the Chagres in which the dam is to be formed. Engineering opinion both in the States and in Europe will undoubtedly support the Commission in respect of this prudent addition to the plan, notwithstanding the corresponding addition to the cost of the work which the change will entail. ' ' There are several other deeply interesting engineering points in the report and

appendices. Amongst these it should be observed that, in deference to the opinion of the General Board of the United States Navy, who considered the size of the intended locks (1000 ft. long and 100 ft. wide), to be "insufficient for probable ships of future construction," the width of the locks throughout has been increased to 110 ft. The average number of men employed throughout the year was over 43,000, about 12,000 of these being whites. Now, here are two serious errors of engineering judgment. One of these has led to the abandonment of the Pacific locks, leaving only a hope that another and more suitable site may be found somewhere else; while the other throws great doubts on the stability of the foundation selected for the great Gatun dam, one of the largest works of this kind ever attempted by the engineer, and the very pivot of the work. All engineers will, of course, approve of the alterations of plan made in consequence, but none of them will be ready to declare that the change will be sufficient under the extreme difficulties of the work. As if this is not enough, the condensation hints at "several other deeply interesting points" which most people may be inclined to suspect owe their interest to the extreme difficulty of the engineering problem they represent. Be that as it may, there is enough in this last report to make one feel certain that if the Panama Canal is ever finished, it will cost far more money than the original estimate.