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PRODUCTION_ Each squadron ti lier becomes: 3 MPH x 5280 ft./hr. x 0.5 24' width = 7000 cu. yd./hr.
cu ft.
With five to six passes per lift required to completely process the material, the net production is approximately 1000 cy/hr of
embankment per unit. To equal this kind of mixing performance on compaction, WCC exercised one option in the specs which
permits the use of equipment not designated, if it can give results equal to or better than those named in the specs. A new
self .propelled sheepsfoot roller developed by Pactor Co. was brought in on that basis. Biggest compaction unit is a 10 ft. wide
self-propelled, double drum machine made by R. G. Le Tourneau. It pulls itself through the impervious zones at 7 mph, and
because it's a double drum machine, it requires only six passes. Other rollers are Ferguson sheepsfoot singles, and Pactor
3-wheelers.
OTHER EQUIPMENT ON JOB - When these pictures were made, WCC was pouring over 30,000 cu yd a day in the impervious
zone alone, to get a closure before fall rains. The "market" idea is paying off in unlimited surface dumping capability on the
fill. WCC's Project Manager called on three tested equipment systems to move yardage fast. Rubber-tire motorized scrapers race
from borrow pits to fill zones with impervious and marginal materials. In the riverbed, swinging almost lazily with power to
spare, a big 191-M Marion dragline, loads trucks with a rattle of bridle chain on each dump, excavating riverbed cobbles. And
a shovel-truck system, again involving a Marion 191-M, is handling the coarse, heavy cobbles and gravel whose sheer weight
will buttress the dam's downstream zone. The scraper fleet includes six Cat 666's, five Cat 657's and sixteen Euclid SS40's.
Pushloaded by Cat Quad-9's they excavate prewatered borrow material that's slightly on the dry side and not well pulverized
when it reaches Zone 1. As the extra water pours in from water tankers, processing begins immediately. Wabco 65 haulers with
modified Athey wagons are hauling from the 191-M shovel and dragline. The material they haul goes into the 28 chimney-drain
zone or the Zone 3 previous shell zone.
TEST FILL HELPS SELECT EQUIPMENT - DWR engineers actually built a test fill, from local materials to determine the types
and sizes of processing equipment the contractor would be required to furnish. DWR engineers then coordinated their studies
of the test fill with their own past experience in earth and rock dams. And recommendations made by the U. S. Bureau of
Reclamation were considered.

FROM THESE EXPERIMENTS AND STUDIES CAME THESE
BASIC REQUIREMENTS WHICH NOW GOVERN PROCESSING:
1. Prewetting of borrow areas for impervious zones.
2. Heavy duty disc mixing of impervious zone materials by squadron wheel tillers. Purpose: to break up
shale lumps, to mix the various types of materials thoroughly, and to get uniform distribution of the
moisture content through the soil, including that added on the fill.
3. Sheepsfoot rolling of plastic soils, with foot-area weight of not less than 4000 lbs. per lin. ft. of
drum length.
4. Vibratory compaction for the granular previous zones.
CONCLUSION
"Ideally," said the DWR engineer in charge of compaction, "we like to get 1 % above optimum moisture in the impervious zone
before compaction. That gives us a plastic core that won't develop shear planes and settlement the way it would if it was com-
pacted on the dry side. Also, it helps to compensate for evaporative losses." Western Contracting has placed about 18,400,000
cy yd as of October 1, 1969, and has 26,600,000 cu yd remaining. By observing the "market"- input fundamental of high speed
earthmoving all the way, Travis expects to furnish Castaic Dam with time to spare.

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