Thomas Alexander on Constructing Hoover Dam

Constructing Hoover Dam

            Because of disputes between various states over interstate streams, a Colorado lawyer named Delph Carpenter concluded that an interstate compact would offer a sound way to apportion the water in the Colorado River.  Otherwise, Carpenter believed, under the doctrine of prior appropriation water in interstate streams could easily become subject to appropriation in other states.  Such appropriations could easily lead to a free-for-all as appropriators tried to establish first rights to the water, and such claims would most certainly lead to costly and frequent litigation.  Article 1 Section 10 of the U. S. Constitution allowed Congress to approve interstate treaties, and Congress approved Carpenter's initiative for the Colorado River in 1921. 

            After the passage of the enabling act, President Warren Harding appointed Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover to chair the compact commission.  The commission met in Santa Fe in January 1922, with a representative of each of the seven Colorado River states (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California) present.   The commission approved an agreement that required the upper basin states (Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico) to deliver 7.5 million acre feet of Colorado River water to the lower basin averaged over a ten year period.  Delegates set the gauging point at Lee's Ferry, a site upstream from Grand Canyon.   The delegates believed that 7.5 million acre feet would also remain for the upper basin. 

            Although representatives of the seven states approved the compact, Arizona balked at ratifying the agreement, and the other six states negotiated a separate agreement which Congress approved.   California, however, attached a reservation to her approval making ratification contingent upon the construction of a dam at Boulder Canyon on the river about 30 miles east of Las Vegas.   The Golden State wanted the dam for flood control, power generation, and especially the storage of water for irrigation in the Imperial Valley.  Two members of the California Congressional delegation, Senator Hyrum Johnson and Congressman Phil Swing introduced legislation to construct the dam, and after a bruising fight, Congress approved their bill in 1928. 

            The federal government turned the supervision of construction over to the Bureau of Reclamation, which issued a request for bids.   Three companies, Arundel Corporation, Woods Brothers Corporations, and Six Companies, Inc. submitted bids.  Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur opened the bids on March 11, 1931, and issued a contract to Six Companies, which had submitted the lowest bid. 

            Incorporated under the laws of Delaware, (so-called mother of corporations) Six Companies consisted of a consortium of a number of companies that had grouped themselves into six units.   Some of them like Morrison-Kundsen of Boise, Idaho and Utah Construction of Ogden, Utah  had already constructed a number of dams as joint ventures.  W. H. Wattis, of Utah Construction, and also president of Six Companies, suggested that the two companies to undertake the project together, but Harry Morrison of Morrison-Kundsen, balked and the two began lining up other companies.    Wattis then negotiated with Henry J. Kaiser and W. A. Bechtel two prominent California businessmen.  In addition to Utah Construction and Morrison- Knudsen, the consortium included a joint conglomerate of Kaiser, Bechtel, and Warren together with J. F. Shea, Pacific Bridge, and McDonald & Kahn.  The Six Companies'bid of $48.9 million was $5 million lower than the next lowest offer and $700,000 below the engineer's estimate.  Industry analysts predicted that Six Companies would lose their shirts on the contract.   In fact through creative management and skilled workers, Six Companies realized a profit of $10.4 million or 21 percent of the bid price.

            Six Companies made a number of innovations that helped address problems they encountered in this unprecedented construction project.  They organized the Boulder City Company headed by Henry Kaiser to arrange for housing, food, and other activities for the workers.  Steve Bechtel ran the Hoover Dam Transportation Company to provide transport to the site which was located thirty miles from Las Vegas.   Union Pacific constructed a railroad track from Boulder City ten miles to the canyon rim.   The contractors strung lines to send electrical power from San Bernardino, 240 miles from the dam site.  To aid in getting supplies to the site Six Companies constructed a tram line from Boulder City to Las Vegas. 

            By any measure, the construction of Hoover Dam offered massive and unprecedented challenges.  Excavation work required the movement of 6 million cubic yards of earth and rock.   From the outset, the company's engineers understood that the hardest job would not be building the dam itself.  Rather, they knew that laying the foundation and boring tunnels to divert the Colorado River around the site and offered the greatest challenges.   Before construction of the dam itself could begin, Six Company's workers had to drill and pressure-grout foundations and abutments in trenches and holes up to 150 feet deep.  The cofferdams, themselves, which were constructed above and below the dam site to keep the Colorado River from overflowing the construction area were larger than most dams in the United States.  To divert the water around the site, workers drilled four tunnels 50 feet in diameter through 3 miles of rock.  

            Constructing the dam offered challenges as well.  The dam itself consumed 3.4 million cubic yards of reinforced concrete.  In order to hasten the curing of the concrete. engineers buried lines of two inch pipes through the concrete.   Then they circulated cold water through the pipes to hasten the curing process.  The engineers estimated that without the cooling system, curing the concrete would have taken up to a century. 

            Power generation was an important aspect of the dam's construction.  The generators at Hoover Dam produced 1.350 million kva, making the dam the largest set of power-generating units in the world.

            As construction proceeded, the company and the federal government  tried to provide excellent living conditions for the workers.   Six Companies spent approximately $250 per man for facilities in Boulder City to try to shelter the workers from summer temperatures that regularly exceeded 100 degrees.  Anderson Brothers Supply Company, the subcontractor that furnished food for the workers, set up a dairy farm to supply fresh milk and butter.  The company constructed a cafeteria style dining room at which workers could eat, and those workers leaving for the job could go to the dining room to fill their lunch pails.  Six Companies also constructed a hospital and various recreational facilities at Boulder City.

            In spite of the precautions taken by Six Companies, employees worked under extremely hazardous conditions.  Even though a number of employees died in accidents at the site, the company's safety efforts still received complements from the government investigators. 

            After the dam's completion, the resulting Lake Mead, named for Elwood Mead, former commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, backed up 115 miles.  Lake Mead had a normal capacity of 30.5 million acre feet, and it could hold an excess flood capacity of 9.5 million acre feet. 

            In recent years the construction of dams on America's rivers has become an extremely controversial undertaking.  Although a number of people opposed the construction of Hoover Dam, in retrospect it seems an excellent solution to the problems of storing of water for Southwestern California farms, controlling floods on the Colorado, and generating electricity in a way that avoids air pollution.

            (Much of the information for this article comes from a manuscript by Sterling D. Sesions and Gene A. Sessions, Utah International, Inc. Biography of A Business, tentatively scheduled for publication later this year by Weber State University Press.) 

            Thomas G. Alexander

            Brigham Young University