From California Highways and Public Works magazine, January-February 1964 issue.
By Don W. Gray, Resident Engineer
"Only the courageous or the desperate attempt to cross the mountains between San Diego and the Colorado River." These were words used to describe the hardships of travel through eastern San Diego County in the early California period prior to the Civil War. In addition to rugged mountains, an arid desert wasteland had to be faced in what is now the Imperial Valley, one of the largest agriculture producing centers in the nation. Hostile Indians, politically inspired rivalry between the North and the South over the location of mail routes to the Pacific Coast, and the fact that large deposits of gold had first been discovered in Northern California, all tended to discourage development of little more than foot trails through the southern mountain ranges.
The mail route established by James E. Birch, which for a brief period of less than a year, in 1857, carried mail from San Antonio to San Diego by muleback was derisively referred to by northern partisans as the "jackass mail," or "the route from nowhere to nowhere." In 1863 two enterprising teamsters, Pete Larkins and Joe Stancliffe, built a small house at Mountain Springs, selling supplies and assisting the few hardy travelers up a 30-percent grade with teams of oxen. There is no indication that the road was heavily traveled.
Mineral Resources Discovered
By 1870 the discovery of valuable mineral resources in the Arizona Territory prompted the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to grant the San Diego and Fort Yuma Turnpike Company authority to establish a toll road in Mountain Springs Canyon. Although steep, narrow, and rocky, the road was successful. Typical charges were as follows: sheep and hogs, 1 cent each; horses and cattle, 5 cents each; horse and rider, 25 cents.
Additional pressure to establish a good road developed in the early 1900's when it was brought to the attention of San Diego civic leaders that $10 million worth of business from Imperial Valley and Arizona was being transacted with a northern neighbor. In the days before gas tax funds were available, the rather unusual method of a public subscription was used to raise $60,000 in order to construct a road suitable for automobile travel. In the words of a newspaper article of the day "The present road is of 22 1/2-percent grade and includes 9 miles of sand. This will all be eliminated and made 11.3 miles long with 1 mile of 7-percent grade, 3 miles of 6-percent grade, 2 miles of 5-percent grade, and 5 miles of 4-percent grade with only 1 mile of hardly noticeable sand."
Construction began on November 2, 1912, under the guidance of Fred A. Rhodes, who was later to hold many responsible positions in San Diego City government. Mr. Rhodes recalled that there were numerous hardships. Good water was scarce. When a new well was dug, one of the mules was permitted to take a drink. If he reported for duty the next day, the water was satisfactory. If not, the well became the mule's final resting place. Arsenic is often encountered in the springs of these mountains.
Heavy Labor Turnover
It is not difficult to understand the reason for a heavy turnover in labor, since the 150-man crew lived in tent camps 50 miles from the nearest towns. Tents would be literally flattened under the 80-m.p.h. winds blowing down the canyon, leaving the men to seek shelter behind sand scoured rocks. A typical equipment spread of the day consisted of 40 mules, together with plows, wagons and stoneboats. All drilling was done with single jacks (one- to two-pound hammers) and hand-held drills. Black powder was the favorite explosive for blasting. The prime movers, the mules, were known for their surefootedness on the narrow trails, as well as their ability to tell when lunch and quitting time came. They would stop pulling and bray. Apparently in the mule labor code, there was no such thing as overtime. In spite of dire predictions of failure, Mr. Rhodes not only completed the highway on schedule, but managed to conserve $13,000 of the original $60,000, which was returned to the subscribers.
The basic alignment of this highway was widened and paved with concrete in 1927. The last major alignment work in the area was completed in 1941 which served until late last year taking U.S. 80 traffic up the grade via Myer Creek Canyon.
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| Devil's Canyon Bridge No. 2 under construction. | Looking south over the Mountain View -- Devil's Canyon area. Bridge No. 2 is in the left foreground; Bridge No. 1 in right background. Community of Mountain View is visible in center background. |
Similar Problems
Muleskinners were replaced by catskinners on the recent contract which saw 10 miles of Interstate 8 completed at a cost of $51/2 million. The probems faced were similar, however, the most important merely being able to get to the site of the work in the first place. The principal portion of the project follows Devil's Canyon, a mile and a half north of the present Highway 80. The alignment selected fell largely on steep boulder-strewn and faulted hillsides rising from the canyon floor at a 1:1 slope or greater. For the coming year the newly constructed 36-foot paved section will carry two-way traffic while work is proceeding on the realignment of existing Highway 80 in Myer Canyon. At the conclusion of this contract a four-lane divided highway with a mile and a half median (in places) will result. Myer Canyon will carry two lanes eastbound and Devil's Canyon will serve westbound traffic. The addition of extra lanes will expedite traffic through the area at the saving of boiling radiators and tempers when slow-moving vehicles would tie up long lines of motorists on the present route.
Isbell Construction Company, with main offices in Reno, Nevada, was the successful bidder on both contracts. The original critical path schedule prepared by Isbell showed a completion date six months in advance of the allotted contract time. Despite numerous setbacks, principally slides of already completed slopes, and adverse weather, the schedule was realized after time adjustments were granted for the additional work.
Project is Divided
Because of inaccessibility, the project was divided into three distinct areas, each separated by the two major steel girder bridges rising 140 feet above the floor of Devil's Canyon and located in the geographical heart of the job. Pioneering and grading in each section had to be carried on independently of the adjacent sections, the only access being the remnant of a flood-washed early day freight road down Devil's Canyon and the roads blasted and dozed along the steep canyon sides by the contractor.
The preparation of the bridge sites and the erection of the girders accounted for a considerable portion of the total cost of the project. The girders, some of which measured 167 feet, are among the longest shop-fabricated on the West Coast. They were hauled to the near vicinity of the job by rail, transferred to trucks, and swung into place over the canyons by a 1,000-foot, 2-inch cable highline.
While the bridge crews were spanning the canyons, a double-shift grading operation was in progress moving 1,700,000 yards of rock to the fills. The two main production units were a 5- and a 6-cubic-yard electric shovel, each feeding a string of 20-yard rock trucks. These shovels work with deceptive quietness and efficiency. Loaded trucks rolling down steep grades under restraint of engine brakes and the day-and-night chatter of rock drills left no doubt that work was in progress.
Hydraulic Monitor
The fills were watered in ordered amounts by a modern adaptation of an early-day mining tool, the hydraulic monitor. The contractor purchased water in Jacumba Valley, 8 miles west of the project, and placed 17 miles of 16-inch and 4-inch waterline to supply water to the monitors and to conventional water trucks when the going became smooth enough to use them. State-furnished water load counters were installed on two trucks. These counters are designed to count each load of water and will operate only when the truck is completely filled and then emptied to within an inch of the tank bottom. An unexpected result occurred in that the counters showed more loads used than the driver reported. Traveling on rugged steep haul roads may have caused enough surge in a partially filled truck to trip the device and thus indicate an erroneous reading.
Drainage facilities consisted of corrugated metal pipe culverts. A structural plate pedestrian underpass at Mountain Springs has served at least one customer. A rare Borrego mountain sheep was observed trotting blithely through the installation. The same ram had been seen on other occasions acting as sidewalk superintendent overlooking drilling crews as they worked. Beside mountain sheep, snakes, and lizards, the culverts handled the heavy unseasonable autumn rains as designed.
Slopes are Flattened
The rocky appearance of the mountains proved deceptive in that 75 percent of the cut slopes had to be flattened or benched in order to achieve stability. The geological section of Materials and Research responded to many "mayday" calls to give recommendations on slope treatments. One report described an area as containing faulted, shattered, crushed, and pulverized zones with huge boulders and joint blocks 10 to 30 feet in diameter. The presence of those 30-foot boulders kept the contractor's explosives bill high. Three hundred fifty-six tons of ammonium nitrate fuel oil mixture and dynamite were used. Careful shooting was the rule, with an average of three-fourths pound of ammonium nitrate per yard required.
While the project might not qualify in record books as the "toughest" rock job, it will long be recalled by those who worked on it as the hottest (120F temperature in summer), the coldest (4F temperature in winter), windiest (80+ mph winds still blow), rockiest, or sandiest piece of highway in memory. Scenic vistas with easy grades and slopes give little evidence now of the trials of early pioneers, or for that matter, of Isbell in constructing this modern highway.
The contractor was represented by project managers Larry Callahan, who handled the organizational phases of the work, Harry Varischetti, who served in the early production period, and Gus Jeppson, who completed the project for the Division of Highways. Eugene Calman served as district construction engineer, D. W. Gray as resident engineer, and R. Dean Brown, Bridge Department representative.