Racing the Landslide

To keep the sheer face of Contractor's Hill from sliding into the vital Gaillard Cut (TIME, May 10) and blocking the Panama Canal, the Canal Co. called for emergency bidding on a contract for the removal of some 2,000,000 cu. yds. of the rocky hill. Seven contracting firms, among them Morrison-Knudsen, world's greatest earth mover, rushed engineers to the canal to study the great fissure splitting the hill. But it was the young and aggressive Tecon Corp. of Dallas that put in the winning offer, 15 minutes before the bidding closed last week.

Tecon (pronounced tay-con, because the company's motto is "We take on anything") is headed by Clint Murchison Jr., 30-year-old son of the multimillionaire Texas wheeler-dealer (TIME, May 24). Eager for the worldwide attention that the job will create, up-and-coming Tecon agreed to move soft shale from the hill at $1.06 a cu. yd., rock at $1.46, and to finish the job in 15 months. Nobody knew exactly how much shale and how much rock would have to be removed to make the canal safe, but official estimates ran as high as a total of 2,350,000 cu. yds. Tecon will probably collect around $3,391,000 for the job. To earn it, they will have to perform some tricky engineering feats, for the massive rock of Contractor's Hill lies atop the soft shale. Breaking it up will take at least 1,000,000 Ibs. of dynamite. If a careless or badly planned blast drops any of the rubble into the canal, the contractors will have to dredge it out at their own expense.

Tecon expects to start by mid-July and be in full operation, moving 8,500 yds. a day in two ten-hour shifts, by early August. At that pace, Tecon should easily win the race against the landslide.

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