EARLY HISTORY OF THE BOW RIVER IRRIGATION PROJECT, ANDCONSEQUENCES OF DESIGN ERRORS

摘要

The Bow River Irrigation Project was first conceived in 1903, and a formal agency, theSouthern Alberta Land Company was formed in 1906 to proceed with planning. There were severalproposals for the location and layout of the project, but the final decision on location and choice for agravity supply system was not made until 1909. In order to mollify shareholders for this delay, and in spiteof a minimum of pre-planning and engineering expertise, a massive construction program was undertakenin 1910. A series of failures developed, starting in 1911, forcing the resignation of the Chief Engineer in1912. The lost time and money due to these failures was fateful, because world events in the next 4decades mitigated against a recovery from the bad start. By 1950 only 18% of the initial objective hadbeen achieved. The project was taken over by the federal government of Canada in 1949, andsubsequently turned over to the provincial government of Alberta in 1974. The input of capital andengineering expertise provided by the governments converted the project to a viable entity, 80%developed by 2000.