Imperial Valley press., 1913-11-25


northeast directly toward the track.
These cross washes for miles are al
most continuous, making at the pres
ent time a corrugated road very slew
to travel on. There are 225 drainage
openings in the 48 miles on the South
ern Pacific railroad between Mammoth
and Yuma, and at almost every on2 Of
these bridges the railroad engineers
have constructed diagonal or wing en-
bankments of earth by which to divert
the flow from the cross washes into
the nearest bridge opening. This
work in it's original cost and in its
maintenance has and does involve
large sums of money. 1t is almost a
continuous expense the year around to
keen the railroad embankment in
place.
A highway built anywhere between
the railroad and the mountain range
to the northeast will be subject, to a
greater or less extent, to the same
form of attack which the railroad en-
gineers are fighting. An analysis,
therefore, of the storm water situa-
ton between Mammoth station and
Yuma would indicate that there is
only one safe place to build high
way, and that is under the lee of the
railroad embankment, thus taking di
rect advantage of the expensive pro-
tective work which the railroad foe its
own safe existence must maintain Tor
all time.
To build the highway, throw up an
embankment similar in character to
the railroad grade, build drainage
opening opposite each of the bridges
on the Southern Pacific, and as long
as their track stays in place the high
way will be pretty sure to remain.
The foregoing is good logic as far
as water conditions prevail, but the
railroad is continually fighting II foe
in many respects as dangerous on the
southwest side Of the track as are
the storm floods coming from the op-
posite side This second enemy is one
of the slow but deadly kind that takes
grip and never let's go. Insidiously
it creeps upon and smothers all oppo-
sition. The puny efforts of men ana
the best ingenuity of engineers avail
nothing in this fight with The "blnw
sands" of the mighty dunes which ex-
tend, formidable barrier, all The way
from Mammoth wash, practically par
allied to the Southern Pacific railroad
in a southeasterly direction to ah 'ut
three miles south of the Mexican
boundary. These dunes are from
three to five miles. wide, and ACCORD
ing to Southern Pacific engineering
records are moving northeasterly at
the rate Of 13 feet each year AL
ready, between Ruthven and Glamis,
and also near Mammoth station, they
are overwhelming the railroad track,
throwing out greedy fingers of sand
thousands of feet in width. Sooner or
later the railroad track will have to
be moved, just as surely as it had
to be moved when the Salton sea COM
menced to encroach on the former
road bed, now abandoned under many
feet of salt water. So, too, with any
highway which is built between the
track and the sand dunes. 1t is only
a question Of time and the moving OF
the Southern Pacific track, when the
road must do likewise.
A final analysis, therefore, of the
road situation between Mammoth and
Yuma is indicative of several facts:
First, that the danger of flood wa
ters from the mountains northeast of
the railroad can be minimized by
building the highway in the lee of the
railroad embankment.
Second, that the encrOachment OIL
the elbow sand" from the dunes south
of the railroad, though formidable, can
be deferred from time to time by the
process of shifting the alignment of
track and road. This, though expen-
sive, is a factor to be reckoned with
for but comparatively short distances
only, say once in ten years.
Third, that the desert formation, ex-
cept where the sand now encroaches
between Ruthven and Glamis and in
the neighborhood of Mammoth, is IA
vorable for the building of stable
embankment upon which to lay per-
manent road bed of macadam or con-
crete.
Fourth, that the highway along the
south side of the railroad is the short
est line to Yuma that can be located
between the sand dunes and the noun
tains.
Fifth, that any other location be-
+,,,oop tbo dumas and the Mountains