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Show GREAT PIECE IF II IN THEUtt CUT-OFF Union Pacific Spends Two and a Half Millions to Save About Nine Miles. Special to Tho Tribune. OMAHA, Nob.. July US. With the completion com-pletion of the Lane cut-off. which the Union Pacific rallrond Is building between a point throo mile? southwest of the Omnha Union station and L?.n '"" n distance of 11.W miles, all fe.ts railroad construction of this cha actor will havo been eclipsed, and two nd ! half millions of dollars will have been ex-ponded ex-ponded lo cut off S.0I miles of grades and curves. ... , When the original line, which forms a horncshoo curve of nearly twenty '"''CJ" length around the territory to nc traversed tra-versed by tho cut-off. was built. a o-glnoer o-glnoer who should havo been 0Ji'i8.n enough to advance the fcaslbll ty of cutting cut-ting acrocs Iho country Instead of building build-ing around the hills would have boon sot down as a fit subject for a lunatic asylum. asy-lum. There aro two immnnso cuts, inc. earth from which In now being used to build n roadbed across three valleys, tne excavations and fills requiring the handling han-dling of nearly S.000.000 square yards of dirt. This dirt would, If laid down In tho heart of a largo city, cover sixteen blocks to a depth of thirty foot, leaving only the chimneys of many reHldenccs to mnra tholr location. , , . The largest excavation Is between Thlrtv-ilrst and Fifty-first streots, within the ckv of Omaha. It lacks but 200 feet of being a mile long and has an average depth of Hftv foot, with the banks towering tow-ering eighty-seven feot above the tracks In somo places, and the greatest width being 100 feet at the top. In many respects re-spects it resembles the great Culcbra cut of Panama, although not so long. Tho engineer has contemplated the spring rahiH bv providing deep channels on either side of the double track for the purpose of carrying off tho water. Thene channels will bo well ballaKted and paved, to prevent tho water damaging the tracks by undermining thorn. Throe Great Fills. While these Immense cuts havo been planned on a colossal scale, the great fills aro oven more Impressive. Of these latter lat-ter there aro three one across the Rig Papplo vallov, a second across the Little Papplo and "the third spans the valley of Hell Gate creek. Under the old system sys-tem of railroad construction It Is estimated esti-mated that 10,000 teams and 20,000 men would have boon required to complete tho work which has ben done by fifty teams, 300 men. a dozen stoain shovtls and two work trains. Tho largest of these Immense fills Is across the Big Papplo valley, and Is one and onc-elgh'th miles Jong. It has an average height of slxtv-ttvo feot. and. like the others. Is built for a double track. Tho din for lts construction Is taken from the Omalia cut, and will require re-quire about a million nnd a half cubic vards to complete It. This piece of work is the largest dirt fill of the kind known to exist. Over the Little Papplo Is the deepest fill, being eighty-nine feet high and 3000 feet long. Built along a street of ono of our large cities, the people riding In the railway trains might easily look into tho foutth stories of the large buildings. It will require over a million cubic yards of earth to build this immense pile, which, like the others. Ik made over a treetle work constructed for the purpose of carrying car-rying dump cars. The Hell Gate, valley fill is the smallest of tho three, being only 2100 feet long. Its highest point la Ixty-flve feet above the valley, and 350.000 yards of dirt are sufficient to complete It. In each case a t;estlo work of tern- porary construction was built beforo tho work of dirt filling began. This meant the expenditure of an Immense amount of money for pine timber. It Is estimated that the lumber nsod would bo sufficient to construct ten city blocks of residences. Of course, no finished lumber was used, but the structure was necessarily Etrong. lo safely carry the dump cars which were pushd onto It. In order that the dirt might, he dropped to tho earth below. Thero are thirteen highway and four railroad crossings. Aboilt half of each aro overhead and tho other half tunnel crossings. Steel bridges nnd cement tunnels tun-nels are uned. and each of tho highways Is fourteen feet wide, giving plenty of room for two wagons to pass each other. In addition to these, many drainage culverts cul-verts wero made necessary. Those cul- verts aro of reinforced concrete, nnd thoso over the creeks and. rlvern are, of sufficient j sir.e to give the streams plenty of room at times of high wnter. Tho expense of building this short piece of railroad has no comparison in the history his-tory of railroad construction. Fifteen years ago a piece of work of this magni- i tude would have been almost Impossible, and would have been regarded ns the Idle fancy of a dreamer. It compares only with tho famous Lucin cut-off over Salt Lake. The successful completion of tho work at Great Salt Lake was an Incentive, for other great undertakings, among which was the Lane cut-off. With tho completion of the Lane cutoff cut-off the Union Pacific will have completed the double tracking of Its roadbed from Omaha to Green River. Wyo. When tho road was built forty years ago the principal prin-cipal object was to secure an overland railroad rail-road to the Pacific coast without regard to cost, since the Government wa.: caring for the finances. The result was that little attention at-tention was given to the great engineering engineer-ing problems and the lino wns fun In any direction that made these features of the work easy. In the past ten ycar.s hundreds of short cut-offs have been built and grades reduced. The Iino cutoff cut-off removes the last of the bad ones. Under Un-der tho old arrangement trains wero forced to run in various direction? for twenty-three miles to ge fourteen miles from the Union station at Omaha. Over the new line a direct ing Is provide', vnlca i from grades and cums.1 Tho construction of thi two years ago, nnd U at completed. It win b? before traffic can be h new linen, as the reidb mitted to settle and beW lowing table shows nf work: $ Length of new Hns, & miles. having of distance c miles. .; Saving In length of can Saving In nngle of rat grees. y Maximum crado, ice cent, or 31.7 feet per raft Maximum grade, tt cent, or 2fl.4 feet pgr uJk |