Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-12-27
RAPID TRANSIT IN NEW YORK.
Present Progress of Work and
Methods Pursued.

Work on the New York rapid tran
sit tunnel says the Scientific Ameri-
can, is now progressing at a rate
which gives reason to hope that this
great work may be completed within
the contract time. Just here it would
be we'll to explain that, strictly speak
ing, the new road should be known as
subway, and not by its popular des-
ignation of tunnel, and this for the
reason that Of the total 20 miles to be
built, not more than about three miles
will be laid in tunnel proper, that is
to say, in one which is eXcavated by
driving horizontally through solid
material at depth of several feet be-
low the surface. The term subway is
applied to that portion of the road
which will be built by making an
open excavation, building within it
the steel and concrete wills and sreas
Of the subway, and then filing in
around the structure and restoring the
original surface Of the road. Com
mencing from the downtown terminus,
the first stretch of the tunnel en-
tend beneath Park avenue and Forty
second street. The next section Of any
Importance will be that reaching
from. One Hundred and Fiftieth street
to Fort George; while on the eastward
branch of the line there will be sec
tions of tunnel where the road passes
beneath the northwestern corner of
Central mark and beneath the Harlem
river.
The subway is being constructed by
what is known as the cut-and-cover
method. A short length of galloway
is erected on the western side of the
street, and with its assistance the ex-
cavation is carried down to the re-
quired depth, the material being SHOW
eled into the galloway buckets,
drawn up and loaded into carts which
carry it to a convenient dumping
place. AS the subway is to occupy
the full width of the street, it is neces-
sary to cut away the whole of the
underlying material below the tracks
Of the Metropolitan street railway
company, and this has to be done
without interfering with the running
of the cars. The structure of the I'M
derground trolly road is extremely
heavy, and as the cars weigh from
to 10 or II tons apiece, the problem
of supporting the structure while re-
moving the material is a rather COM
plicated one. It is met by placing two
pairs Of massive I-bears, two feet in
depth and about So feet in length,
parallel with the tracks and spanning
the section to be eXcavated, and sup
porting beneath them a series of |
transverse II by II timbers, the tim
bers being secured to the longitudinal
steel I-beams by bolts, each timber
bearing against the base Of the track |
yokes. With the track thus securely |
supported, it was possible to excavate |
beneath the structure without inter-
fering with the traffic. After the ex-
to subgrade, the footings for the steel
columns are laid, the columns erected,
and the I-beams which form the
framework of the walls and roof of
the subway are laid in place. The
temporary timber false work is then
removed, and the concrete arches are
turned between the steel framing
Following this, four layers of felt and
tar waterproofng are laid completely
around the concrete, and an outer pro-
iectfng sheath of concrete and brick
IS placed over the whole subway The
loose material is then filed in and the
street restored to it's original surface.
This framing, by the way, is spaced
about five feet apart, and answers in
some sense to the framing or ribs OF
modern steamship. During the ex-
provision has to be made for
the water and gas mains
and cable condults, and this is done by {
singing them by chains from II by
2 timbers, which are temporarily
on timber struts. I
The particular piece of work to
which we have just referred is, in {
aspect Of the difficulties of excava-