Engineers working on a project at Shasta Dam early this year had a problem.
A hundred feet above the dam’s powerhouse, where the turbines that generate electricity are located, stretched a 1,700-foot, 3-inch steel cable that was last used in 1952 for a trolley system to place 30-ton concrete blocks at the foot of the dam to stop erosion.
The cable weighed 52 1/2 pounds per foot and officials were afraid it might be weakening…