BNSF was to start double tracking Abo Canyon a bit back. Has anyone seen any photos or know of the progress?
Gracias - - -
[8D]Stack
There was a short one page article in the March issue of Trains Magazine (page 20). Based on the article it appears that engineering is essentially complete and work about to start, with completion scheduled for next year.
Regards
Ed
Not going anywhere fast - The NIMBY’s are taking it to court.
un-fricking-believable
Who the hell lives in that back yard? Thought that was in BFE.
Ever wondered where all the 1960’s hippies wound up? The rich ones (old money) wound up in Santa Fe; the others and their offspring wound up a little further out, including guess where[:D][:D][:D]
[(-D][(-D][(-D]
Ahh, someone’s spotted squirrel or something might be displaced 5 feet to the left huh?
You’re catching on, Illini. Matt Rose politely called it “permitting” today in the newswire.
http://www.abocanyon.com/ Did you see this site? They are totally against the railroad. One of the train pictures they use to drum up support for their side is exactly alike another picture used on another site promoting the fantastic railroading action in the canyon. LOL Its all up to the beholder, I guess…
I don’t think it’s such a bad idea to insist that the project proceed in an environmentally responsible fashion.
If I recall properly, both sides (the RR and the NIMBY’s) have both been over the top in favoring their own best interest, at the expense of the other’s. BNSF has wanted to spend next to nothing on environmental impact mediation, while the NIMBY’s have been proposing some fool extravagance like the 2 tier portion of I-70 in Glenwood canyon.
Just looking at it from the perspective that once it’s tore up, there might be no fixing the screwups. (after the fact) I think it makes sense that some middle of the road compromise should be explored, that addresses the integrity of the environment, without punishing BNSF’s stock holders too excessively.
Allowing BNSF to proceed with no environmental stewardship requirements whatsoever would be a big mistake, IMO.
Anything worth doing, is worth doing right. Or it shouldn’t be done.
Anti: Somewhere it’s going to come out what happened in the past 6 years, including the huge chunk of change spent on permitting and approval by BNSF, only to have a set of outsiders with political connections step in, claim those rules and procedures do not apply and torpedo the whole process 4 months before construction.
I won’t disagree that the environmental side of the dispute has been overblown and unreasonable. They have.
But, since I started watching this unfold a couple years ago, it (seems to me anyway) looks like BNSF wants to proceed with indifference to the environment., for the sake of lowest possible construction cost.
I don’t really consider myself to be a tree hugger, but at the same time if BNSF is allowed to proceed with environmental indifference, seems just plain wrong as well. Compromise seems to be the key
The problem comes in defining a reasonable compromise…
I have said it before and I will say it again. Just run a train through with 100 cars leaking mercury all over the place and pollute the whole area so bad there is no hope of anything ever living there. Kind of hard to worry about enviromental conditions when there is no hope of ever cleaning it up. Then fill the canyon in and make it a big rail yard. I can’t believe the railroads don’t take my advice. Here I am sitting at my computer when I could be running the BNSF. I am a genious. Really. Why doesn’t everyone believe me? My doctor says I am just fine…[}:)]
Their alternate proposals involve either a 3.5 mile long tunnel or a 1.4 mile long tunnel. It’s soooo easy to spend other people’s money…
Solzrules - Is your real name Futuremodal?
As a somewhat distant bystander – who has actually driven Abo Canyon to see what all the fuss is about – I thought that the plan proposed by BNSF is very environmentally sensitive. The area is very rugged, but BNSF’s approach – which alternated the new track from north of the existing track to south of the existing track – minimized impacts to Abo Creek. The easiest approach – a complete new alignment for the new track – would have been much more environmentally impacting.
One major concern is the desert big horn sheep. Looking at BNSF’s plan, I would be hard pressed to see how their current range has been impacted more than existing operations impact the range.
dd
You mean GN’s Rocky lives down there? [:D]
True. Especially when both parties seem to have their head in the clouds.
What the NIMBY’s area afraid of are more trains running thru there so they might have to hear more horns. Yet these are the people that have to have everything that is out there.