Waterworks - Hampden ME - Living New Deal

City:: Hampden, ME
Site Type:: Water Supply, Infrastructure and Utilities
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
Started:: 1938
Completed:: 1938
Contractors:: A. Piatelli, R. Civitarese & Co.
Quality of Information:: Good
Marked:: No
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of waterworks in Hampden ME in 1938. The PWA provided $58,950 while the Hampden Water District’s contribution consisted of a bond issue of $140,000.

Excerpt from the Bangor Daily News, 1938:

“Standpipe In Hampden Has Been Completed

Has Capacity of 370,000 Gallons; An Unusual Test Made

The erection of the standpipe for the Hampden Water District, financed by the Public Works Administration, was completed Thursday, Inspector H. S. Yergey, resident engineer, announced yesterday.

The steel standpipe is thirty feet in diameter, seventy-five feet high, and has a capacity of 370,000 gallons. A departure from the usual riveted sections was made in the the erection of this standpipe in that all sections, rings, sheets, roof, and ladders were electric welded. H. C. Clarke, of the Chicago Bridge & Iron Co., fabricators and erectors of the standpipe, states this to be the only welded tank of its size and capacity in the state of Maine.”

Source notes

Bangor Daily News, April 15, 1938.

Excerpt: "An unusual test was made of the field welding by a welding expert sent from the Chicago plant, Circular discs one inch in diameter were taken from the finished welds at various points on each of the nine horizontal rings and also on the vertical welds where the sections joined. These discs were then boiled and treated with acid which would bring to light any sections in which the hot flowing steel had not penetrated during welding. Before sandblasting, and the painting of three coats both inside and outside, the standpipe be further tested by being filled with water.

All work on the other phases of construction, for a complete waterworks and water system for the entire town of Hampden, are now in full swing. Excavation and the pouring of concrete for the footings and foundations for the pumping station and the digging of the filter beds has been completed.

Two trench digging machines are employed on U.S. Highway No. 1, starting from Reeds Brook, laying the trenches in opposite directions for the ten inch water main. About three thousand feet of the ten inch main is in place and several of the fire hydrants placed.

This project, being financed by a grant of $58,950 by the PWA to the Hamapen Water District, and a Hampden Water District bond issue of $140,000, will fill a long felt want and need to the citizens and community of Hampden.

All work on the project is being done by contract under approved plans and specifications, and under penalty to provide a completed project by September 7, 1938. All labor, both skilled and unskilled, is being supplied through requisition to the Maine State employment service and is nearly all from the local community and surrounding territory.

Labor reports as submitted to H.S. Yergey, Public Works Administration engineer, show that 10,000 man-hours of employment for labor on the site have been provided and with 50 men now employed about 60,000 man-hours of employment will be needed to complete the project/

Thomas A. Murray of Hampden Highlands is president of the board of trustees of the Hampden Water District. Other members of the board include Melden A. Patterson, clerk; Walter A. Whitney, treasurer; C. L. Cummings, John H. Perry, trustees.
The general contract, as approved by the Public Works Administration, has been awarded to A. Piatelli, R. Civitarese & Co. of Hyde Park Mass.; while the Hampden Water District is represented by Whitman and Howard of Boston."

Site originally submitted by Andrew Laverdiere on September 18, 2019.