Imperial Valley Press

SPEED PROMISED
Dr. Mead Says Construction Can Start Day After Bids Are Accepted.

WASHINGTON, March 26. (U.P.) -Work on the $27,000,000 All-American canal in the Imperial Valley of California, can start within one day after the contract for initial construction is awarded, Commissioner of Reclamation Dr. Elwood Mead said today.

Bids for preliminary work on the project will be asked "early in April," Mead said, and tentative plans call for the opening May 15, at Yuma, Ariz.

"Everybody has been waiting for this work," Mead said. "The contractors who want to participate have prepared their plans and should be ready to start at a moment's notice."

The comptroller general recently released $6,000,000 to the reclamation bureau which had been allotted by the public works administration to help finance construction of the canal. Previously, it had been impossible to ask for bids due to legal controversies.

Under revised plans the call for initial bids will stipulate, Mead said, that construction shall start at a short distance below the Imperial diversion dam and extend through the sand hills, making the canal considerably longer than was contemplated in original plans.

Other conditions, Mead said, will be outlined by the chief engineer at Denver. Contractors submitting bids must post a bond and shall have had sufficient experience to justify their participation in the work, Mead pointed out.