Salt Lake Herald | 1907-11-10 | Page 32 | Great Engineering Feat Completed in Double-Tracking of Eagle Canyon

GREAT ENGINEERING FEAT COMPLETED IN DOUBLE TRACKING OF EAGLE CANYON The work of ot the Eagle River canyon on the main trans transcontinental transcontinental transcontinental continental line of the Denver 8 Rio Grande railroad Just jU west of or Leadville is now completed The contractors the Phillips Construction Company who commenced work vork wor a little littleover littleover littleover over a year ago have finished their contract and one of the greatest en engineering engineering engineering feats of ot the year has lias been successfully accomplished The new second track built through the narrow Eagle River RIer canyon has cost more than per mile to construct but the relief afforded by this great improvement by which trains can be more easily operated over the steep grade on the west side of Tennessee Pass will be worth many time the cost of 01 construction In the five miles of 01 canyon work there are three tunnels with a total length of SOO feet being lOa and feet respectively There are five steel bridges with reinforced concrete floor slab with ballast under the track of ofa ofa ofa I a fine quality of rock The steel girders are probably the heaviest I ever used in bridge construction The Th track is laid with new steel rolled by the he Colorado I Fuel Iron company at their Pueblo plant with tie plates and entirely new track material throughout The T e new newline newline newline line which is used for the eastbound or uphill haul reduces the grade from 33 per cent to 23 per cent and the curvature is also greatly lessened The enormous outlay considering the length of the track was necessitated necessitated necessitated by the constantly increasing business both freight and passenger of M f the Rio Grande road and the tremendous tremendous tremendous dous increase in ih volume anticipated with the completion of 01 the Western Pacific a year hence f fA A peculiarity of location and one not met with elsewhere is the building of the tracks on each side of the Eagle river Between the tho high walls of the narrow canyon there is just room enough for two tracks and the rushing river From one end of the canyon to the theother theother theother other and on both sides mining for I gold silver and lead is being carried on extensively Shaft houses and ore are bins are perched high up on all narrow ledges and the wonder is they do not slide into the river far below There is not another canyon in the Rocky mountains traversed by a railroad where mining operations can be seen as In this the Eagle River caIl on