THE KATONAH DAM.

THE KATONAH DAM.

The completion of the Katonah dam on the Croton system will impound for New York city between 8,000,000,000 and 10,000,000,000 gals, of water—a sensible addition to the city’s supply. The plans for this dam were approved on February 7, 1905. and the contract was awarded to MacArthur Brothers and Winston & Co. on June 20 of the same year. As in the case of the contract for the Ashokan dam, which has just been awarded to the same contractors, their bid was higher than the lowest for the Cross River works by $166,000. Their bid was $1,246,000. The lowest bidders were Dunn. Naughton & Co. and the Ryan-Parker company, and there was a hard fight to hold up the award. A temporary injunction was granted, and this was made permanent on September 15, 1905, by Justice Bischoff

in the Supreme court. The suit was brought by a taxpayer, in the interest of one of the unsuccessful bidders. I’he work was delayed five months. Justice Bischoff held that the contract was illegal, because it provided for payments to the contractors at unit prices, according to typical cross-sections of work to be performed, without limiting the amount of work or showing exactly where the work was to be done. The reservoir will be about three miles long, with a maximum depth of 100 ft. The wall is 900 ft. long and 170 ft. high over all. It contains about 160.000 cu. yds. of masonry. The aqueduct board allowed twenty-six months for the completion of the dam. Despite the injunction, the contractors have finished well within the contract time. When the capstones of the structure were laid, on August 7, the gates were closed, and the water began to accumulate in the reservoir. Owing to the drought, very little has gathered back of the wall of concrete, but it is expected that this month’s rains will make the progress of filling rapid. The dam is about a mile east of Katonah