Page:Report of the Oregon Conservation Commission to the Governor (1908 - 1914).djvu/29

Rh It is proposed by concentrating the great flow of water over the sands at the mouth of the river to scour and maintain a channel of 40 feet if necessary at low tide. The depth 110w is about 26 fcet at low tide the average rise and fall of the tide being 7j/2 feet. The jetty now strikes out in the sea about miles and is partially completed for this distance but must be extended about 4 miles further. The difficulties and hazards consequent upon this work cannot be described. It has to be seen to be appreciatccl. Yet such is the system now in force that substantially every tell ‘iinutes during working hours a train load of rock is dumped into the sca. and but one hour is consumed in the process which requires a haul going and coming of about ii miles over a trestle. much of it through foaming breakers, where the trestle, when the great waves strike it. shakes and trembles like An aspen.

The problem itself is apparently a simple one. Pile in the rock until a jetty of sufficient width to withstand the force of the waves and currents reaches the high tide mark, and Ict the river do the rest. It is in the working out of this simple plan the skill and the nerve of the engineer is put to the test. We would be glad if time and space permitted to go more into detail. The work is progressing satisfactorily, a,,d s accompIishng results, but much work remains to be done, and no better example could bc found of the folly of intermittent work or the benefits coming from uninterrupted progress than this project. The maintenance of the trestle is the key to the successful and spedv completion of the wDrk, and as the piles are being constantly weakened by the action of the tereda navalis, it must be evident that rapid and uninterrupted work s necessary.

At present the work is under a continuing contract but with appropriations sufficient to last for only one year more. Now is the time to prepare for the future, as the continuance oi this work must at all hazards be provkled for, so there will be no stoppage until it is completed. iThe exact amount of its ultimate cost cannot be foretold. This is owing to the extraordinary conditions surrounding the work. It will. however, be a considerahLe sum. It can, however, be safe!3 said that the expenditure is justifiable rom even standpoint, for the mon tli I ‘‘is river is the flaw ral outlet on a water grade for all that vast seclic,n know” as the