The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-08-20
ON RIGHT OF WAY.
Engineers Busy Along Northwestern
Route.

Civil engineers under the supervi-
sion of Chief Engineer J. B. Berry of
the Union Pacific railroad
are sinking test holes along the right
OF way of the Topeka & Northwest
ern railroad for the purpos of maxi
ing an estimate upon the appropria-
ton necessary to cover the cost of
grading the right of way.
The bids are made upon the work
by the contractors for certain sums
for each class of work. A certain
sum IS asked per cubic yard for NOV
ing earth; another amount for NOV
for moving solid stone.
h test holes are sunk by the
railway company at intervals of every
pose of gaining information relative
to the amount of material of each
classification there will be to move.
In this amer the railroad
is able to get a check upon the con-
tractor.
1t would be a simple matter for the
contractor to overcharge for the work
performed If a ~precaution was not
made. The railroad keeps
inspectors out with the grading gangs
who make reports of the quantity Of
material moved by the contractors.
The bids for the work nave been
made and they are in the hands of the
Union Pacific officials at Omaha. It is
expected that the contract will be
awarded within a few days, and that
the actual work of grading the road
bed for the new line will mme
shortly after the first of September.
There will be a number of very deep
cuts along the new line. The deepest
will probably be just south of Onaga,
where it is announced a cut will be
made So feet deep.
There will be two cuts in Shawnee
county, one on the William Forbes
farm. II miles from Topeka, which will
be % feet deep and the other on the
Joseph Dolezilek place, II miles from
Topeka which will be 20 feet deep.
Ihe new line will be kept within $40
OF one per cent grade, and the survey
shows that the proposed line will be
practically a tangent the whole dis
lance from Menoken, the point where
the line branches off from the Union
Pacific main line, to Marysville. The
new line will be built fully up to mod
ern standards. The fact that there are
no heavy courves nor grades will admit
of fast time over the line which will be
laid with IS pounds steel.
A l per cent grade is an ascent of
52 $40 feet per mile, and it is
ed that at no point of the new line will
the grade be heavier than an ascent of
30 feet to the mile.
There will also be a number of low
places which will require a great deal
of earth to fill. One of the longest fills
on the line will be in Shawnee county
on the Rickett and Page farms in sec
ton II, township 10. Here for a dis
lance of half a mile the earth will be
dumped in to fill a place from eight to
II feet deep.
The new line will require several
steel bridges. None of these will be
large, the biggest one being but 12O
feet in length.
The steel for the new line has been
delayed and the first shipments have
not yet been received at the storage
yards in North Topeka.
However,, the shipments of ties from
the pine forests of Texas continue to
come and they are being unloaded in
North Topeka. About 100. 900 ties have
already been u~nloaded. The construc-
tion work announced by the Union Pa
cific calls for half a million ties.