The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-24
More Than 3 Million To Be
Spent in the State.
Many Improvements To Be
Made This Year and Next.
TO BUILD MANY new LINES
100000 Office Building To Go
Up Here Next Spring.
One New Line in State Will
Cost $1,5OO,OOO.

Three and a half million dollars will
be EXPENDED this year and in 1918 in
Kansas by the Atchison, Topeka Z
Santa Fe railway under the road;
plan, announced in detail today, for
construction of new lines and build
ings. More than a million dollars or
the amount will be spent in Topeka
The 35-mile branch line from Holy
rod to Galitia, penetrating the heart
of the kensas wheat belt, will he
builded at a cost of $4,000 mile or
a total of 100000. Another line, now
being surveyed from Santanta, Kan,
rs miles west to the Colorado line,
will cost $1,500,000. The new 10-story
office building to be started in To-
peka next spring will cost 100000 Or
more. The contract for a new files
and records' building costing S2O6.OOo.
to be located opposite the II. Il. Y. M
. c. A. on East Fourth street, will be
| let in about 10 days.
New Valley Falls Depot
! A new depot and yard improve
ments at Valley Falls will cost about
/ $4,000.
! All this brings the total expendi
lures for this year and next up to
| S3,220,000. Officials of the road here
today estimated that expenditures for
miscellaneous improvem will
bring the total easily to s3,500,00O.
The line from Satanta to the Col
| orado line is being surveyed and the
|
ton will give every county and every
principal town in Kansas a railroad.
Steel bridges. 1t is also officially
announced from Chicago, have been
! ordered for the Usage county and
| Santa Fe railroad to ext end a distance
ston, Okla. The line will run thru
the oil fields by way of Pawhuska. 1t
will shorten the distance several score
of miles from oklahoma City to Kan
| pleteG thru trains from Okla hon1a
City will run to Kansas City and Chi
cago over the Southern Kansas line
| the southern terminus of which is now
Tulsa.
Push Branch Work.
! Construction of the Holyrood- Cali
tia line. it was announced today. will
| begin this summer.
| Work is also being pushed it was
! announced, on the Santa F'e branches
from Shattuck to Spearman and from
| Lubbock to Seagraves, in northwest
| Texas. and the Minkler Southern,
! from Lindsay to Porterville, in Cali
fornia. These roads are nearing com
| pletion.
The new line from Kansas City to
st. Louis is also Scheduled to begin in
Il short time
1t was also announced from Chi
caso that nearly 1,20O miles of new
steel rails had been ordered for use on
! the system this year and in 1918 F.
| c. Fox, general manag ger for the Santa
! Fe here, stated that the rails were for
use on the new lines and on mainte-
nance. About 500 miles of rails a
! year have peen used by the Santa Fe
in the last several years.
Purchase of the new rails aroused
considerable speculation here as to
whether or not the road is planning
to complete a double line between Chi
cago and the coast. The double line
has been finished with the exception
of about 400 miles the other side of
Albuquerque. Plans of the road. an
( nounced previously. are to eventually
make the transcontinental line a
reality.
| Materials Arc Costly
The Santa Fe railway is practically
the only one in the west that is going
ahead and building railroads and big
improvements in the face of the rock
citing cost of materials.
Officials of the road, however have
been brought forcibly to realize the
rapidly increasing prices of materials
F. G. Fox, general manager a few
days ago purchased several hundred
tons of turntable steel for S147 a ton
Four years ago he purchased a like
amount for $3.50 ton
! Last August the Santa Fe engineers
drew an estimate erection of a
records building III Kansas City The
cost, under material prices then. would
have been s7.491. Last week bids for
the work were asked and the lowest