The Nenana daily news. (Nenana, Alaska) 1918-1921, 1918-05-10
RAILROAD WORK
MOVING RAPIDLY
SOUTH OF TOWN
Very Satisfactory Progress Now
Being Made Along Line Toward
the Coal Field.

Operations in connection with the
building of the Government railroad
is now being pushed rapidly and
very satisfactory progress has re-
/ suited so far. The force of men
engaged in stripping the ice over
laying the rails are daily laying bare
sections of the long-imbedded track.
/ thereby enabling the work train TO
proceed closer to the end of track
daily and it is expected that the
end of steel will soon be reached
by the stripping gang, when track
laying toward the Crossing will i'm
mediately be undertaken.
The grade. for some distance from.
the present end of steel and up to
the point where the big 1300-foot
trestle across Lost Slough begins,
will have to be eribbed up before
any rails can be laid, but as all the
necessary material for this purpose
has been gotten ready and assembled
for instant use on the scene of
action, the work of cribbing will be
finished in short order.
The big trestle has been ready for
the steel for some time past and the
grade beyond for some distance be-
yond Residency (35-mile) is COM
pleted in every detail and the ties
distributed along the entire length
of it, in readiness for use by the
steel gang. As stated in these COL
umns previously, there is a space of
only one thousand yards from the
end of steel to where the big trestle
begins, only a portion Of which needs
TO be cribbed before the steel could
be laid, and this work is expected 70
be finished in very short time after
the grade has been stripped of the
encumbering ice.
The warm weather now expe-
rienced is helping the work along
very considerably and a very large
quantity Of the flood waters that
has been such a hindrance to the
progress of the work is daily being
gotten rid of. The drainage scheme
put in force as soon as the work for
the season had been undertaken. has
been extended and improved greatly,
and as the dams and other flood
protection works will most effect
lively prevent further encroachments
Of the river, it is expected that al
most all the accumulated flood waters
will be drained off into legitimate
channels in a short time.
To make the wing dam which was
driven across the head of Lost Slough
effective at the earliest possible
moment, large quantity of logs
and brush has been gathered in
readiness for use as soon as the ice
in the immediate vicinity Of the 60,
goes out. For the entire length of
the dam a series of piles have been
driven and capped, leaving a little
space between the closely driven
piles of the dam proper and the rows
OF capped piles, large logs have been
laid on the caps in readiness to be
rolled into the water to fill the
space between the dam and the row
of piles, and thus securely hold the
waters that ordinarily go to form
Lost Slough and swing it to the
main channel to flow harmlessly
away. Until such time as the ice
melts away or goes out from around
the flood protection works, a small
quantity Of the overflows may run
in the channel of Lost Slough, but
after the material now in readiness
has been used and the dam made
secure no fears whatever are enter
tanned OF any damage being done
by the grade from tn Entertainments
of the river in this section of the
country.
About one mile above the dam
described a narrow, though deep
channel has been dredged out and
otherwise prepared to receive the
bulk of the waters OF Lost Slough,
and, as an added precaution, an
other strong dam was driven across