1943

              1943
Mining
In 1943 Utah began operations on stripping and open pit mining of coal in
Western Pennsylvania, and of iron ore in the western states.   Utah furnished
by custom operation coal from properties owned or leased for special needs
of metallurgical or similar processes.   The Pennsylvania operations, which
had been the largest volume of such work on one locality, involved stripping
about thirty million cubic yards of shale and sandstone overburden, and the
mining and carloading through tipples of over three million tons of good
quality steam.
Western operations were at first confined to the Cedar City district in
Southern Utah, and resulted in the acquisition by Utah for its own use, the
rights to substantial reserves of high grade magnitite ore as well as extensive
stripping and open pit mining for others.
Projects completed during this period were:
Ross Dam (2nd Stage) -   In the alpine vastness of northwest Washington's
snow covered, craggy mountain, Ross Dam was designed by the City of
Seattle's Municipal Department of Lighting to be built in successive stages
as the master storage and control unit of a series of hydroelectric develop-
ments on the rushing Skagit River,   The original dam, 290 feet high, was
completed in 1940 by General Construction Company.
In 1943, with wartime industries and population increasing the need for power,
the city awarded the second-stage contract to raise the dam to 475 feet.   A
joint venture of General Construction Company; J. F. Shea Co., Inc.;
Morrison-Knudsen Co., Inc.; and Utah did this work. Approximate cost was
$7,150,000.
Watauga Tunnel -   At Elizabethton, Tennessee, for the Tennessee Valley
Authority, Utah Construction Company drove some 2,100 feet of unlined tunnel approximately 37 feet in diameter.   Also included in the $1,438,000
contract which was completed in January 1943, were construction of a
spillway shaft, gate control shaft, concrete upstream portal structure,
coffer dams and embedded parts for control gates.
Norfork Dam Powerhouse -   Built in conjunction with the Norfork Dam in
Arkansas, under conditions of extreme wartime urgency, this plant for the
U. S. Army Corps of Engineers was completed in 1943 to supply the electric
power needs of critical metal industries in the area.   Construction schedules
were so successfully designed and met that the generators were put on line
nearly two years before completion of the dam itself.   Contract amount was
$1,000,000.