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Show Rio Grande Improvement Program to Cost $160,000 One hundred and sixty thousand J dollars has been apportioned by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway company com-pany officials, as the amount to be used during 1928 for the completion of the branch line uu Salina canyon, are the official advices which have been received in Salina. This amount am-ount is in excess of that allotted when the four-year building program was first made. Less than $400,000 was first set aside, but with the al-lottment al-lottment for the coming year, the total will be near $500,000. It is officially of-ficially stated, also, that when work is again resumed in the spring, the grading and rail laying will be completed com-pleted by the middle of the summer, and ready for operation. A barrier, however, will likely prevent operation of any rolling stock, as President Pyeatt has declared that he will not , . attempt to operate trains through the canyon until highway travel is given ample protection at the many dangerous crossings which were necessary in building the railroad. The bridge spanning Salina creek for the railroad has been completed, and trains are now opreating over it, rails being hauled to the end of the line daily. A crew of thirty-seven men, under the direction of A. Barnes, roadmaster, and C. N. Anderson, Ander-son, section foreman, is laying rail every day. It is announced that this work will bo continued during the present campaign, until Rattlesnake Rattle-snake hill is reached, five miles up the canyon. The Utah Construction compeny, having the contract for rrdinT for the railroad company, will complete the grading within n;n"v dvs after work is resumed in the spring. Both the construction company anc th? riilro"d gang, excepting those laying rail, have suspended work foi the winter, the extreme bad weather resulting in this decision. However, all will be in readiness for resumption of work at the earliest possible moment mom-ent when conditions will permit next spring. With the completion of the railroad rail-road building, and unless action is taken by the state road commission I and the bureau of public roads, ac-j ac-j tivities will be at a standstill. President Presi-dent Pyeatt has declared that he will not permit operations on the road until safety is provided by those responsible re-sponsible for the highway conditions. To allow the running of trains, President Presi-dent Pyeatt has declared, would be treacherous and murderous, as the ' numerous "blind" curves would serve only as death traps to the thousands of travelers through the canyon both winter and summer. Salina and Southern Utah can not afford to have any interference with the progress prog-ress and development of the vast resources, re-sources, and if some action is not soon taken those responsible for the highway conditions will hear a blast that will resound all over the state. ' In a bill introduced by Congressman Colton, in the national congress, it . asks that amendments be made to the federal roads act by authorizing I special appropriations for building I highways across government lands in j the western states. The bill would appropriate more than $10,000,000 tc ' j be used in a period of years. It is tc j be hoped that H. H. Blood, head ol 1 ! the state road commission, and th heads of the bureau of public roads ' , will cast aside the selfish attitude f oi , : Southern Utah, and work to the enc i of having sufficient of this fund se1 I aside for building a good road thrt Salina canyon, for the reason that i1 I is the only one highway over thf mountain rantre that is passable th -'year round. Salina Sun. |
