The Alaska daily empire., 1921-01-19
ALASKA RAILROAD TO BE COMPLETED BY DECEMB MBER 31
Only 84 Miles Separate Ends Of Steel on Northern and
 Southern Divisions.
ENGINEER REVIEWS WORK
Progress of Construction Op- erations in 1920 Told by
 William Gerig.
Special Correspondence to The
 Empire

plTe.)
 ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Jan. H. With an abundant supply of labor and good weather conditions there seems no reason why the track should not be connected by the end of the coming year" declared Will jam Gerig, Assistant Chief Engineer, in a resume made for The Empire of the work done last year by the Alaskan Engineering Commission forces on the Government Railroad. Only S4 miles now separate the ends of steel on the Northern and South ern divisions and contracts for clearing and grading the right-of- way have been let for all save 15 miles of that gap, according to MT. Gerig Completion of this work will give a continuous line from Seward to Fairbanks, distance of 410 miles.
 The work on the Alaska Rail- road, carried on under the direction of Colonel F. Mears, Chairman and Chief Engineer, 9uring the calendar year 1920, has been quite success ful, although during the early part of the year the climatic conditions were not favorable for construction work, and labor was scarce and in efficient.
 At the beginning of the year there was considerable work to do in rehabilitating the old Seward Di ', af aI track had reached Mile 236. Grad ing from Mile 236 to Mile 246 (Su-i sitna River crossing) was about 75 per cent complete. The program as laid out by Col. Mears for the years work consisted in completing the rehabilitation of the Seward DiYi- sion, completion of grading to the Susitna River crossing, pushing ahead the track to this point. and the erection of a large steel bridge across the same river.
 Seward Division Work.
 "The work of rehabilitation on the Seward Division consisted in rebuilding many of the large wooden bridges and eliminating many others by filling in, the building of addi- tional snowshedS, and ballastinG about 100 miles of track on thiSI division This work was completed by the middle of October and the forces either discharged or given other work In consequence trains ar now being operated between Sew ard and Anchorage on schedule of about six and one-half hours. and up to the present time there has been no delay on account of snow or winter weather, although at this writing there is about five feet of snow on the summits at Miles l2 and 45 and several large snowslides have come down over the snoWsh eds North of Anchorage, track was eX- tended and grading completed to. Mile 275, or eleven miles beyond the point called for in the program for the year. Considerable grading was also done between Mile 275 and Hurricane Gulch-Mile 284, and station contractors are now at work north of Hurricane Gulch as far as Mile 300.
 Big Bridge Erected.
 The Susitna Bridge, which is a steel structure having a span of 504 feet, and weighing approximately ? 900 tons. was manufactured in the States and delivered at Anchorage during the summer and is now en- tirely erected and the riyetting 50 per cent completed. The program provided tlat this bridge should be completed some time in April, and if the present weather continues the bridge will be entirely completed and in use by February 1. Two enormous concrete piers were CT ected. one on each bank of the river and the bridge is now resting on these piers This work waG done by Commission forces. The erection of the bridge is being done by the con tiGctOrs.
 The track was ballastcd in fairly