Bacon Tunnel, Near Coulee City, Changed To Full-Depth Operation

From the "Spokesman Review."

July 23, 1947

Biggest Things Abound In Basin

From the "Spokesman Review."

December 23, 1946

1942 Top Map Coulee City To Bacon Tunnel

Each square represents a square mile. Section 21 is where the water tunnel for the Federal irrigation project comes out, near where the siding of Connolly was established in section 22. Connolly was named for the contractor that was building the tunnel in a few years. The double dotted line meandering in section 34 is the original alignment of Pinto Ridge Road.

1947 Bacon Tunnel Construction Photos

Photos courtesy of Cheryl Bensch.

Two Mile South Dam Being Built At Coulee City

From the "Spokesman Review."

December 6, 1947

Work On Bacon Tunnel Starts

From the "Spokesman Review."

December 18, 1946

Bacon Tunnel Bore Crews Encounter Sandstone Rock

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

December 26, 1946

Cliff All Marked For Tunnelers

From the "Spokesman Review."

December 23, 1946

Wood Dug Out Of Basin Rock May Be Oldest On Continent

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

April 10, 1947

Basalt Walled Valley To Carry Columbia Basin Irrigation Canal

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

October 14, 1946

There was a short construction railroad out here that helped haul muck out of the tunnel.

Bacon Tunnel And Siphon

From the "Spokesman Review."

May 12, 1946

1947 Bacon Tunnel Lining View

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

March 7, 1947.

1947 Bacon Tunnel View

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

February 24, 1947

Two Mile Tunnel Is New Superlative For Coulee

From the "Spokesman Review."

December 23, 1946

Present Status: Columbia Basin Project

From the "Spokesman Review."

October 16, 1949

Bacon Siphon And Tunnel

Written by me, Dan Bolyard.

 

Part of the scheme to get irrigation water from the Columbia River was to pump it into the upper Grand Coulee by the pump-generators at the dam site. Water would flow into the equalizing reservoir, now named Banks Lake. From there the water would flow two miles through a canal blasted out of basalt. The next section is the focus of this essay: the Bacon Siphon and Bacon Tunnel, built in 1947.

The name Bacon comes from an old station midway on the Northern Pacific Adrian Cutoff, which ran south of Coulee City to the Great Northern siding at Adrian, a distance of about 25 miles. The odd name's origin is unknown, though one local legend has it there was a run on food at the local general store after the area was opened for homesteading. At one point the only remaining foodstuff left in the place was Bacon. I like the idea that it was named for someone, though I have yet to find conclusive proof either way. .

The siphon and tunnel are actually closer to Coulee City, so the reason for the choice of the Bacon name for the project is unknown to me, though it is distinctive, and unlikely to be confused with any other named location in the project of canals and siphons downstream.

The siphon was the tool used to cross part of the upper reaches of the lower Grand Coulee, namely Don Paul Draw. The project name for the draw is Bacon Coulee. Odd to me is that pioneer settler Dan Paul lived at the very tip, closest to town, so the choice of Don or Bacon just confuses it.

The siphon was to take water from the two-mile main canal, via a 22-foot diameter concrete pipe, with the higher end receiving water at a higher elevation, and then dumping the water into the tunnel at a slightly lower level. There was a modest amount of excavation in the draw/coulee to allow for a smooth flow of the pipe. Once that was done, a metal frame was built in sections, then a form was built before concrete was poured. When finished the siphon was 1,038 feet long.

The Bacon tunnel is of greater interest to me. The area is made up of various lava flows, so the tunnel would have to be blasted through basalt, a lava rock. The rock cools into a large crystalline shape and is difficult to drill through. The tunnel was planned at 10,045 feet long. The contractor, C.E. Connolly, established a siding near the south portal of the tunnel, along the NP branch, aptly named Connolly.

The Connolly camp featured the usual buildings, tents for the men, an air compressor enclosure, an office, a tool sharpening shed, and dynamite storage. In order to remove the spoil from the tunnel, a short section of railroad track was built.

The tunnel was built in the usual style of drilling, blasting, and muck removing. When enough of the 22-foot diameter tunnel was completed to full size, it was lined with concrete. Photos show two sets of tracks exiting the south portal at one time, with later photos showing only one. Small gas-electric locomotives worked the line. the spoil being dumped along a short distance from the portal.

In the photo, we are looking out the north portal on August 5, 1947. The track for the mucking crew is very evident, with a scoop on a railroad car seen on the left. Across Don Paul Draw/Bacon Coulee, a blasted rock is being removed from where the beginning of the siphon will be.

The completed siphon and tunnel were rated for carrying 7.250 cubic feet of water per second. Water demand was so great a second siphon and second tunnel were completed in 1976.

The photographer is unknown, likely a staff photographer from the Bureau of Reclamation. The photo is part of the collection of the Coulee Pioneer Museum in Electric City.

Statement Of Significance Bacon Tunnel

 

Columbia Basin Project The Columbia Basin Project (CBP) is the largest Reclamation project in Washington. At 670,000 acres under irrigation today, the CBP is still unfinished as it is planned to irrigate over 1,095,000 acres in the project area (U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, 2004, p. 44; Warne, 1973, p. 127). The project area is in Adams, Douglas, Franklin, Lincoln Grant, and Walla Walla Counties. It turned dry-farmed lands and sagebrush into one of the most productive agricultural areas in Washington. This project was also to spur settlement of new farms for veterans returning from World War II. 

After World War II the boom experienced in the development of the CBP was highest from 1952-1959 with about 50,000 acres of land a year coming into irrigation, which was the largest growth to date in the planned 1 million acres (Warne, 1973, p. 138). Water is pumped up from behind Grand Coulee Dam and impounded in Banks Lake behind Dry Falls Dam then makes its way down through the system in a series of six main canals and three reservoirs to reach all of the irrigable acreage in the Columbia Basin. This system alone consists of over 300 miles of main canals, approximately 2,000 miles of laterals, and 3,500 miles of drains and wasteways. See http://www.usbr.gov/projects/ and Columbia Basin Project History for more information about the Columbia Basin Project. Main Canal: 

The CBP Main Canal begins at South Coulee Dam (today called Dry Falls Dam) and travels approximately 21 miles via canals, falls [or through a hydro-electric powerplant], a tunnel , a siphon and a reservoir to the at the bifurcation works north of Adco where the Main Canal splits into the West and East Low Canals. The CBP Main Canal was built from 1946-1951 with construction done in three sections with each section following the completed one (Simmonds, 1998, p. 39-40). While it is like many other Reclamation canals in its construction its size is what separates it from other main canals. Bacon Tunnel: One of those large engineered structures in the CBP Main Canal is the Bacon Tunnel.

Bacon Tunnel was built under Reclamation Specification No. 1236, Schedule No. 2 – Bacon Tunnel and Bacon Siphon, Main Canal, Station 92+75.5 to Station 214. The winning bidder for Schedule No. 2 was T. E. Connolly, Inc. of San Francisco, California with the amount of $3,494,470.00. The contract No. I2r-16311 involved building the Bacon Siphon Inlet Transition, Bacon Siphon, Bacon Tunnel Access House and Transition, Bacon Tunnel, Bacon Tunnel Outlet Closed Transition, Bacon Tunnel Outlet Portal Open Transition and approximately 962 feet of unlined canal between Station No. 204+38 to 214+00. These structures were built approximately 1 and 1/3 miles south of Coulee City (U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, 1948, p. 76; U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, 1950, p. xiii; Thomas, 1950, p. 1). 

Construction of an access road to the outlet portal location was started on July 26, 1946 and by August the contractor’s construction camp was also started. It is interesting to note that this was before the official notice to proceed was issued on September 16, 1946 by Reclamation. The construction camp was built near the outlet portal and consisted of a mess hall capable of feeding 150 men at a time, an office building, a heating and furnace room, a wash and change house, eight army type barracks, and 20 army hutments that had been leased from Reclamation. The two access roads, one for the outlet and one for the inlet and Bacon Siphon, were both gravel surfaced. A shop area was also constructed at the outlet portal which consisted of a combination battery shop and compressor building in a Quonset Hut, a blacksmith shop, a carpenter shop, a Quonset machine shop, a pumphouse, fenced transformer rack, a large power magazine ½ mile from the camp and portal, and a smaller powder magazine for storage of blasting caps. Water was obtained from a spring and well which was pumped to an above ground 5,000 gallon tank that then distributed water via underground lines to the camp, shops and tunnel. A Quonset Hut warehouse was built on the hill above the camp next to a spur track of the Northern Pacific Railway (Thomas, 1950, pp. 4, 5 & 8). 

While the construction camp was built at the outlet portal a similar shop complex was built at the inlet portal. It consisted of a building with a blacksmith and machine shop inside, a battery charging transfer and electrical shop, a washroom and change house, garage with shop, carpenter shop, three hutments for storage, a truck greasing rack, oil house, and a gas tank with a pump. In order to transfer batched aggregate from trucks a ramp was built to transfer the material to batch cars also in this location. Also located near the siphon location was a framing shed with platform and compressor house located 300 feet east in the bottom of Bacon Coulee. Additionally, two portable powder and primer preparation magazines were built along with a large powder magazine 1,200 feet west of the inlet portal. In 1947 water for the tunnel inlet and Bacon Siphon was obtained from a well that was then pumped to two tanks on the bench above the shops and tunnel to be distributed via underground lines to the shops, tunnel and siphon as required. Electric power to both inlet and outlet locations was supplied by the Grant County Public Utility District via newly constructed electrical lines. Reclamation had also two hutments moved to the jobsite for offices used for the Reclamation construction inspectors (Thomas, 1950, pp. 4 & 5). 

Work on Bacon Tunnel started on December 12, 1946 and it was completed by April 19, 1950. The tunnel was drilled though a 27 foot thick sandstone layer along with a basalt layer above and below it. This project was hampered by strikes in 1947, 1948, and 1950 and on January 22, 1947 a large section of basalt columns above the outlet fell at 6:20pm. Thankfully nobody was under the portal at that time as the heading crews had already gone into the tunnel just before these rocks fell. The excavation of the tunnel was started first at the outlet portal. Then on April 9, 1947 the inlet portal was started with drills and dynamite and by August 18, 1948 the tunnel was holed through. Excavation of the tunnel was done with five Conway mucking machines and the material was hauled away on a narrow gauge railway in 13 Koppel side dump cars powered by six locomotives. The Bacon Tunnel was lined with concrete and the first concrete was placed in the transition sections at the outlet portal on September 7, 1948 (Thomas, 1950, pp. 2, 6, 10, 14 & 21-22). 

Concrete in the tunnel was placed in sidewall and arch lining forms which “were raised or lowered by means of 30-ton hydraulic jacks set within the vertical support frames, or legs of the form carriages” (Thomas, 1950, p. 30). The tunnel was also grouted along its route starting at the outlet portal on September 12, 1949. Concrete placement was done in sections and all of the concrete work was completed by April 6, 1950 with grouting done seven days later. April 6, 1950 was also the date the access house and inlet portal transition to the Bacon Siphon was completed (Thomas, 1950, pp. 12-13, 35, 39). THE Bacon Tunnel was considered as finished on ___

 

1976 Bacon Tunnel View

Courtesy of the Bureau of Reclamation.

November 19, 1976.

One of the last official photographs taken at the south end of the Bacon Tunnel. Seen here is one portal from the 1947 tunnel. Shortly after this photo was taken, construction on a second 2 mile long tunnel would be undertaken. The new tunnel would be built to the right of the old one in this view, and would obliterate any remaining signs of the construction railroad that was used in conjunction of the first tunnel. The NP Adrian Cutoff, seen curving through the scene here, would be abandoned by 1979, with activity at the old construction siding of Connolly being the last activity the branch had seen after 1953.

1948 Bacon Tunnel View

1947 Bacon Tunnel View

May 11, 1947

Construction crews from the Conolley Construction Company are working on some of the last details before the tunnel gets lined with concrete.