wsmdam.html

The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., July 18, 1946, page 1

WORK IS STARTED ON McNARY DAM
District Engineer Walsh Announces Plans For Preliminary Construction Activities At Umatilla Rapids On Columbia River

Army Engineers have $2,600,000 with which to initiate construction of McNary dam on the Columbia near Umatilla, Colonel O.E. Walsh, Portland district engineer, told delegates to the Northwest Rivers and Harbors Congress meeting in Longview last week.
"Part of that amount will be used to complete plans, acquire land at the dam site and erect a small construction camp," he said. Early in the fall," Colonel Walsh stated, "Army Engineers will advertise for rock excavation of the McNary dam lock and a portion of the approach channel.
"The lock of the dam, primarily a navigation project, will be 86 feet by 500 feet, with a normal lift of 60 feet."
Initial construction of one of the four, five or six slackwater navigation dams on the Snake river during the 1948 fiscal year is anticipated by Colonel Walsh.
Another of the new projects is improvement of the Columbia River between Vancouver and The Dalles at an estimated cost of $1,176,000 with additional features including a ten-foot channel 300 feet wide at the entrance to the Oregon Slough, $6,000; a small boat basin at Hood River with a ten-foot channel 220 feet wide connecting to deep water, $98,000; and a ten foot channel 200 feet wide connecting the water front at Bingen, Washington, to the main channel through Bonneville lake, $101,500.
The other three projects included in the Authorization bill provide small boat basins at The Dalles, Astoria and Newport.
Colonel Walsh said The Dalles-Celilo Canal handled 598,980 tons of commerce during 1945, greatest in its history, and that tonnage this year appears to be 40 per cent greater than last year.