xymnovel Chapter 140 Construction of a Water Gate in Paradise Valley
Chapter 140 Construction of a Water Gate in Paradise Valley
Chapter 140 Construction of a Water Gate in Paradise Valley
The low water level of the Huangshi River in August made it easier to select a site for the construction of a sluice gate, but it also brought unexpected troubles.
The riverbed is too wide.
In order to construct at the selected rocky pass, they had to build a temporary dam upstream and downstream of the dam site, completely separating and draining a section of the river in the middle. This is called a "cofferdam".
The workers were bent over, painstakingly stacking bundles of straw bags that smelled of earth.
The straw bags were filled with clay dug from high up on the riverbank; they were heavy and damp.
The workers kept dragging empty straw bags to the soil collection point, quickly filling them with shovels, and then dragging them back.
The downstream cofferdam was built relatively smoothly.
But trouble arose when they began building a dam at a narrow point upstream.
Although the water upstream is shallow, the water flow is compressed and immediately shows a fierce, unyielding force that refuses to be restrained.
As soon as a few layers of straw bags were piled up, the turbid river water cunningly seeped out from the gaps in the straw bags, the bottom, and even between the straw stems, quickly accumulating puddles on the inside of the dike.
Workers had to fill the layer with highly plastic clay, mix in fine sand to increase density, and tamp it down with wooden mallets to form a seepage-proof layer.
Clay expands when it comes into contact with water, which can automatically seal the gaps.
The rudimentary manual "pumping" began.
They have windmills!
In the distance, towards the Rocky Mountains, a hot current seemed to be stirring.
"The sail—the sail is moving!" The workers were so excited they almost jumped up and down.
Tom smiled slightly at the old cowboy. "Not bad!"
The windmill started turning, making a "creak-creak" sound.
"Quick! Connect the pump rod!" the old cowboy yelled at the workers.
As the windmill arm rotates faster, a set of rough but sturdy wooden gears and crank connecting rods converts the rotational force into the reciprocating motion of a thick oak rod below.
This "pump rod" connects to the core of a cast iron cylindrical pump, the piston, which is deeply embedded in the water of the cofferdam.
"—Zongdao—dao—dao," heavy impact sounds began to ring out rhythmically.
Each time the pump rod is pulled back, the one-way valve (leather valve) at the bottom of the pump cylinder is opened by the water pressure, and the turbid muddy water is sucked into the cylinder.
Immediately afterwards, the pump rod was pushed forward forcefully, the inlet valve in the cylinder was closed, and the outlet valve at the top was opened by the piston. A jet of water carrying mud, sand and grass clippings sprayed out with a "plop" from the cast iron outlet pipe connected to the pump cylinder.
It flew over the grass bag wall of the cofferdam and tumbled back into the downstream river channel.
"The water's coming out! Mr. Tom!" Jim cheered, pointing to the gushing water.
Tom smiled and looked at the old cowboy engineer.
But the old cowboy didn't laugh.
He stared intently at the windmill and the wildly swinging pump rod.
The wind is unstable, sometimes strong and sometimes weak.
When the wind is strong, the canvas billows, the gears emit a piercing whistle, and the pump rod, like a mad hammer, clangs and rattles, making the ground tremble slightly, while the jet of water sprays out rapidly and violently.
When the wind weakens, the canvas immediately wilts, the windmill slows down, the pump rod becomes sluggish and weak, and the water sprayed out becomes a thin, intermittent stream.
"The wind is too strong!" the old cowboy sighed heavily.
Even with stable winds, continuous pumping still takes a very slow time.
On the first day, they built a dike, plugged the leaks, and began pumping water.
The next day, the wind turbine pump ran at full speed, barely managing to expose the riverbed before evening, but it was too muddy to work.
On the third day, the mud was cleared and the foundation was reinforced, marking the start of true "dry-ground construction".
The riverbed, barely squeezed dry inside the cofferdam, was not the solid land one might imagine, but rather a thick, black swamp reeking of fishy stench.
When you step into a boot, it sinks up to your ankle, and when you pull it out, it makes a heavy "pop" sound, leaving a deep pit that is instantly filled with murky mud.
"This is even stickier than the mud in the mine!" The old cowboy went down himself, grabbed a large wooden stick, and shoveled into the hopeless mud.
The workers followed closely behind.
The shoveled silt was thrown to the outside of the cofferdam, but the riverbed seemed to have a life of its own, with new muddy water stubbornly seeping out from all sides and the bottom, filling the gaps.
"Stop! Stop!" The old cowboy, panting heavily, straightened his aching back and looked at the mud pit where there was almost no progress.
"That won't do! Go! Drag the rest of the straw bags over! And go dismantle a few of the thick wooden planks left over from when we repaired the irrigation ditch last time!"
His method was simple and direct: a subbase layer.
They carried heavy sacks filled with relatively dry soil.
They smashed them one by one into the deepest mud pit and stomped them down.
Then, thick pine planks are laid on top of the straw bags to form a temporary "work platform".
The plank wobbled and sank in the mud, but it at least provided a foothold for me to stand and exert force.
The next step is to reinforce the foundation.
This is the true core of combating the power of the river.
The old cowboy chose a sluice gate site located between two hard black rock ridges, but the riverbed itself is not all rock. The area that needs to withstand the pressure of the sluice gate piers is a layer of soft gravel and silt.
"Oak stake! The thickest and straightest!" the old cowboy roared, his voice hoarse.
He chose a spot and used an axe to cut a positioning hole in the pine plank.
"Aim here! Shoot! Shoot until it hits a hard bone on the riverbed, or breaks!"
The heavy oak stakes were erected in the positioning holes.
The workers grabbed large sledgehammers and took turns hammering the stake. Meanwhile, they used a small watering can to continuously pour water onto the stake to prevent the hard oak from splitting under the heavy blows.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!" The sound of hammering once again dominated the valley, even more muffled than before, because most of the force was absorbed by the mud and planks underfoot.
One, two, three—each stake had to be driven nearly two meters deep into the riverbed until the hammering sound changed from a hollow "bang bang" to a short "clang" as it struck a hard object.
The old cowboy knew from experience that they had encountered bedrock or a dense gravel layer.
He counted and found that nine thick oak piles had been driven into the designated location of the pier, arranged in a quincunx pattern, forming a deep-rooted framework.
"Alright! Now, gravel! Pour all the gravel we brought in!" The old cowboy pointed to the gaps between the wooden stakes and around them.
The workers dragged over several bags of sharp-edged basalt gravel sifted from the slag heap and dumped them around the wooden piles, filling them up to near the riverbed surface.
The old cowboy himself jumped down and used a heavy ram (a piece of oak with iron hoops) to pound the ground hard, again and again.
The crushed stones interlock and wed each other under heavy impact, squeezing out the loose riverbed soil to form a rigid raft foundation made of wooden piles and crushed stones, which is used to disperse the huge pressure of the gate and prevent uneven settlement.
"Now we can lay the stones!" the old cowboy said, panting as he climbed up.
They began by using stone blocks and rubble mixed with thick lime mortar to build the sill and the foundation of the two side piers of the gate on a layer of crushed stone.
The surface of the stone slabs is rough, so they need to be carefully selected and trimmed to ensure they are roughly flat in preparation for the subsequent installation of the door track.
The lime mortar dries very quickly under the scorching sun, so construction must be carried out rapidly.
As the old cowboy laid the stones, he repeatedly glanced at the reserved doorway position and the angle of the gate installation, occasionally using a string dipped in ink to straighten and calibrate it.
"If it's even slightly off, the door will jam!" he growled at the workers.
As the stone foundation gradually rose above the muddy riverbed, the construction of the sluice gate itself also began simultaneously.