The March 1931 edition of "Arizona Highways" contains a gem of an article about construction of US 89 from Cameron to Navajo Bridge over The Colorado River. Perhaps even before the bridge was dedicated in June 1929, lobbying began to allocate funds for improvement of US 89 from Flagstaff to the Utah stateline at Fredonia. It appears that much of this lobbying came more from Utah leaders rather than Arizona interests. Improvement of US 89 on the Western Navajo Reservation came entirely from federal funds so it may have been easier for politicians to jump start highway improvement there.
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| (Editor's Note: The text below was transcribed verbatim from the online PDF source format into ASCII text and reformatted here.) |
The largest highway construction project in Arizona is officially known as Federal Aid Project 604-95B. It consists of grading and drainage of approximately forty miles of U. S. Highway 89 extending northward from Cameron towards Lee's Ferry bridge on the Flagstaff-Fredonia highway. The project lies wholly within the bounderies of the Western N'avajo Indian reservation and consequently is entirely financed by the federal government. Highway U. S. 89 is destined to become one of the important north to south highways of the west and will give the tourist travel of the NorthWest states access to the wonderland of Arizona. It passes through a country abundant in beautiful scenery and natural wonders, including the Zion Park of Utah, the Kaibab forest of Arizona, the Grand Canyon, Rainbow Lodge, Natural bridge, the painted desert and petrified forests. On the portion of the highway now building one can find on the broad mesas beautiful, vari-colored petrified woods. In the walls of the deep canyons can be seen the silicified bones and teeth of the pre-historic Dinosaur, Labryinthodonts and Pythosaur, the first lung breathing animals that roamed these regions one hundred and twenty million years ago.
Vivid Hued Sandstones
The road when completed will pass through country formed mostly of a wide variety of sandstones which are themselves traversed by deep canyons scoured out by rainfall runoff. As the minerals in the exposed surfaces oxidize, brilliant colors are produced which form a natural matrix and present a picture-like landscape of beautifully vivid hues. A construction feature, somewhat unique to the project, is that these sandstones, which are suitable for the purpose, largely, replace concrete as a structural material in bridge piers, abutments, foundations and pipe headwalls. The climate of the district is semiarid, making available water supply one of the important points for consideration in construction methods and costs. Fortunately, however, underground or "inter"Strata" flows break through to the surface at irregular intervals along the line of the whole project and furnish adequate supply of water, usually potable and sometimes exceptionally pure. Enormous pieces of petrified trees are seen scattered throughout the vicinity indicating heavy forestration at some earlier period, though at present there is little or no vegetation. Wood for fuel is obtained from the scattering growth of juniper and a fair grade of coal can be had from the government mine near the Indian School at Tuba City.
Heavy Trucking Required
Except where the contour is broken by the canyons already mentioned the topography of the country can hardly be said to be rugged and the slope rises more or less regularly from an elevation of 4200 feet above sea level at the beginning of the project to 5900 feet at Cedar Ridge, the highest point, near the northern end, thence declines to the Colorado River at Lees Ferry. Flagstaff, some 55 miles distant from Cameron, is the closest shipping and supply point so trucking expense becomes one of the major items in the cost of construction. The following quantities of material, which will have to be handled by truck before the job is completed, are worthy of note:
605,000 Ibs. of structural steel.
281,000 Ibs. of reinforcing steel.
7,800 feet of 24", 30", 36", dia. corrugated metal pipe.
30,000 sacks of cement.
Many thousand feet of lumber for forms, .etc.
hay and grain for 100 head of stock and the required supplies
for separate camps, with an aggregate population of several hundred persons.
Portable School House
The contract, one of the longest ever let in one piece by the Department, was awarded last October to Yeater and Davis of El Paso, Texas, who began work at the southern end of the project in November. Their base camp was then established at the end of the first five mile section of the road and now consists of the customary dwelling tents and cabins, boarding houses, commissary, garages and shops. The camp also is the proud possessor of a portable school house, probably the only one of its kind in the state, which can be moved without notice to wherever it is most needed on the project. This building, designed for the comfort and convenience of its occupants, is built of tongue and groove lumber held together with bolts and is equipped with regular school-desks, blackboards and all modern, up-to-date appliances. It has a capacity of twenty pupils and one teacher and is always filled. The contractors built and maintain the building while the county pays the salary of the teacher. Special attention was given to safety in laying out the school grounds and ample space provided to obviate the danger of getting struck by a passing toxi if one should by chance, "Babe Ruth" the ball out of the lot. Altogether the camp gives the impression of a little city in contrast to the vast barren surroundings.
Much of the unskilled labor for the work was recruited from the local Indians who, with their long black hair, moccasined feet and silver jewelry set with turquoise dangling from their ears and around their necks, make a pleasing contrast to the ordinary run of camp laborers. The rest of the camp citizenry is made up of skinners, truck drivers, stone masons, mechanics. together with their families.
For accessibility's sake the engineers' camp was established in a well protected and secluded canyon about a mile to the east of the halfway point of the project at what is known as Willow Springs. This spot, probably due to the high quality of the water and the fact that watering places were few and far between, attracted the early Mormon settlers and became a stopping place for travelers through this country in 1873. The camp consists of a couple of cabins, bunkhouses, mess hall and an engineering office. These buildings were designed and built for their specific purposes in connection with this project, are heated with Tuba City coal and supplied with water through a new gravity pipe line from Willow Springs.
Good Progress Reported
Even though, as already stated, sandstone largely replaces concrete in the construction of the road, there will be some 2900 cubic yards of class "A" concrete used in bridge decks, cappings, etc. This item alone constitutes approximately 16 per cent of the cost of the project. Rubble masonry, while composing over forty-five per cent of the bulk of all structures combined, accounts for about 15.5 per cent of the total cost of the project. The grade itself (cut and fill) 32 per cent; subgrade stabilizer, five per cent; structural excavation, five per cent; structural steel, eight per cent; drainage excavation, rip-rap and corrugated metal pipes, 14 per cent, while the balance of 100 per cent of the cost is made up of such incidentals as clearing and grubbing the right-of-way, placing 8,140 feet of cable guard fence, etc. The total cost of the completed project will amount to about half a million dollars and will require over 400 days in its construction. December 31 is the tentative date of completion. At the end of the four months that the work has already been under way the grade has passed the ten mile point and reached Moencopi Wash, where one of the largest bridges of the project is to be built. Here the contractors have already established a subcamp on the south bank of the stream where a water supply is available. Little interference with the work by inclement weather has yet been experienced and similar weather conditions are anticipated.
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