The Schoharie Reservoir

Materials for Construction
Under Construction

Source of building materials

gilboa historical society summer 2012 v. 14.2 page

The Board of Water Supply naturally used local water, but also developed local quarries for mining large stones for the facing on the dam. They blasted a local mountaintop and crushed the stone for mixing into the What are they coming over okay. They used local forests for lumber, and discovered a cache of sand for making mortar. Portland cement was the only significant building material that had to be brought in from distant sources.

They still needed to move these materials from their manufacturing sites to the construction site, and for this, the BWS developed an integrated infrastructure of pipes, overhead tramways, horse-drawn or powered trucks, narrow-gauge railways (both coal-fired or electric), a fleet of Oneonta-made Linn trucks and tractors, and steam shovels and other construction or operational equipment.

Source and Transportation of Building Materials

Riverside Quarry, source of building blocks for dam face and Intake House

Riverside Quarry opened 1920
FOX news video
this is were the Gilboa fossils came to the attention of Winifred Goldring
provided all building stone used in the dam and permanent buildings
deliveries in 1921 made by truck
narrow-gauge railroad in 1922 
operations suspended (Nov-Feb) as moisture in freshly quarried stone could freeze and crack the stone
crew went from 13 to 70 men in 1924

Stevens Quarry, source of crushed stone for concrete within the dam or foundations

Road 2 accessed Steven’s Mountain Quarry to the east of the Creek
Mules furnished motive power, and portable gasoline-operated concrete mixers and stone crushers were in the mule train
Produced crushed stone for making concrete
The top of Stevens Mountain was cleared for excavation of stone
1922, 34 / 6-inch holes were drilled 45– 50 feet deep and filled with 5 TONS of TNT
Stone was crushed on the mountain and
Delivered to the construction site via a 3,670 feet overhead tramway
Delivered 24/7 continuously for 3 years until supplies were sufficient to complete all work. quarry, slurry

Patchin Pit, source of sand for mortar joining blocks and concrete 

The first two local sand pits were unable to supply sand
Sand for making cement was the biggest problem
Patchin farm located just off the intake to the Shandaken Tunnel (blue dot) [map], and pretty much in the middle of the valley off from the Intake House
Patchin family was in the Revolution.
A narrow gauge train until 1924 (red) 
Cleaned sand was sent to at mixing plant 24/7.

Cement Shed, cement used with crushed stone for concrete or sand for mortar

Large (50-ton capacity) storehouse located to the northeast of the intersection of Sought Gilboa Road and Route 30.
Bags of Portland cement were brought to the Grand Gorge Railroad Station, and then trucked stored into the Cement Shed staging area.
Cement Shed was the start of a 3,300-foot tramway suspended by 8 intermediate towers about 18 feet overhead.
6 bags of cement delivered every 48 seconds. 

Overview of Cement & Mixing site

[map]
Crushed stone was delivered from Stevens Mountain via a 3600-foot tram
Bags of Portland cement were delivered over a similar, 3,300-foot tram suspended by 8 intermediate towers about 18 feet overhead.
Water for the mixer was supplied by a 4-inch gravity line from the Manor Kill falls.
Overhead stone, sand, and cement bins fed an electrically driven 2-cubic-yard mixer.
The mixed concrete was then pumped to top of a 135-foot distributing tower and dumped onto steel chutes for delivery to a specific worksite.