The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-13
BOTTLE NECK CUT
 IAT SOUTH BOSTON no BE ENLARGED
New Haven Railroad Will Spend Million Dollars on
 Improvement.

Construction work will commence immediately on the widening and general improvement of the South Boston, cut of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co. The plans have been approved by the Public Service Commission. all ar, Judgements have been completed and contract for the work has been awarded. The enormous growth of business in the Boston freight ter minal of the New Haven road, brought about to a large extent by the location of the Commonwealth pier and the Fish pier in that terri, tory and the location of many fn- dustries in that section, all of which are served by the railroad through 1; the South Boston cut. has. necessitated ! the improvement adopted.
 fThis section of the railroad was constructed about 50 years ago at a and freight cars and engines much smaller than at present. The cut is consequently entirely inadequate for both the volume of. business and the increased size of equipment. The op- eration of two trains in opposite di- rections through the cut at the same time is impossible. The present ipad- z equacy will be overcome by the wid- ening of the cut to allow for four tracks instead of two as at present. and by constructing tracks with ample clearances to permit all tracks to- be used at the same time.
 sCompletion of the work will ma ferially expedite the movement of freight in and out of Boston, being a,s.most important Improvement and anecessity which has long been recog- < nized by the railread company and which was authorized by the directors some time ago.. -.-.y
 The cut is the enhance from all the railroad; lines in the South Bay dis trfct to the yards. terminals and docks in South Boston. This connec- ton with the freight yards is some times termed the neck of the bottle through which passes nearly all of the freight traffic of the New Haven road in and out of Boston. Train movements through the cut average one every three minutes during the ;. day of 24 hours. The cut is one-hali mile long, and when completed will contain four tracks. An expenditure of about $1.000,0e0 will be required and it is estimated that the work will take about eight months to complete There are II street bridges crossing the cut. These will be built of steel with solid floors. The grade ap. proac1es to some of the bridges will be slightly raised, while the tracks will be depressed to point about 1C feet below mean high water. Should any water accumulate in the cut il will be disposed of by a pumping plant having a, capacity for the dis -charge of 1000 gallons per minute.
 A general idea of the amount ol work to be done can be gained from the fact that 120.000 cubic yards ol excavation will be necessary Abou 10000 cubic yards of masonry will bt required: also 10000 square yards O istreet surfacing. 3,100 square yards o bridge flooring, mile and a half O. drains and three miles of track.
 The growth of South Boston as { notwithstanding and industrial centre the building of the Common wealtl Nlier--the largest combination pas Tenger and freight pier in the world and the Fish pier upon which is tn, largest fish. market in the United Dkates, have all greatly increased tn, business of the South Boston terri tory. The completion of the improve ments to the cut will prove to be O. great importance to the locality a. well as to the business located there since it will permit handling of tn, increasing amount of freight with tn, least possible inconvenience to ship tr1ers. cousigneeS and the railroads.