The concept of ownership “to the center of the earth, and to the heavens above” is indeed a key principle of property law and mostly still valid in the eastern US.
Depending on the wording of the original easement document, the railroad might have the right to expand/ relocate the easement as needed, without any additional compensation being paid to the owner above (not likely, though).
More practically: What are the actual damages / loss in property value caused by a railroad tunnel below ? Particularly if the property is commercial: What harm is there to an office or store ? Or even rental units: How many prospective tenants declined to rent, or demanded a lesser rental amount, when they learned of the tunnel below ? I suspect the damages are not $0, but netiher are they huge.
One way that a tunnel could cause significant damages is if it interferes with a well, or plans to drill a well. It may also considered a burden for those who planning for a backyard ICBM silo…
According to Edgar Rice Burroughs, it’s a wild world below the surface–and there is a bright light in the middle, so you do not need to carry a light–unless you go into a cave.
Aren’t a lot of old RR tations sold with underlying ground staying ownership with the RR ? Is The ground lease unually for a definite time with the option of the station owner having to move station or it gets demolished ?
Fine, then you just have to deal with the idiot utility contractor bubbas directional drilling through your tunnel or silo. (We have a Utility hall of shame photo collection here showing what the utility BEM’s have done to pipes, culverts and manholes that would knock yor socks off!)[banghead]
(Hopefully the sensor hasn’t figured out a BEM yet![:O])
To me, a BEM is a Bug-Eyed Monster, the kind of horror that has been featured in some science fiction works. ERB had one kind of them, huge spiders, in one of his Martian tales. MC may know of a different kind of BEM.
At least for the B&P tunnel - and others in urban areas - the water supply is likely via a public / central system and pipes, so no wells are necessary.
I don’t recall hearing of any of this kind of problem when ConRail enlarged the bore of its Gallitzin tunnels circa 1994 -1995. The Borough of Gallitzin is not far above the tracks, and the tunnels have always had problems with coal mine shafts, former wells, etc. falling or leaking into the tunnels.
I’ve not heard of any such problems with tunnel enlargements or ‘daylighting’ of them as part of more recent clearance improvement projects by NS and CSX. Nor from the ‘granddaddy’ of them all, the Southern Rwy.'s enlargement and removal of the “Rat Hole Division’s” many tunnels in the early 1960’s. Also, the removal of several tunnels from Cajon Pass, as well-reported here by K.P. Harrier.
Perhaps that’s because most of these were in rural areas, so no one cared enough - or had money enough - to object.
Or, when the railroad acquired the right-of-way, it also acquired the surface rights, whether via purchase, easement, land grant, etc. That would make sense if you consider that many tunnels back in the days of steam locomotives needed airshafts to ventilate the tunnels; since those would have to come to the surface someplace, that would justify the railroad in acquiring the surface rights, too.
Likewise, many tunnels were drilled/ bored from separate headings, some of which originated from similar intermediate shafts down from the surface along the tunnel’s route.
The problem probably lies not so much with the existence of the tunnel as much as what might happen on the surface as the tunnel is being bored. A local example happened during the boring of the State Street subway in the early 1940’s, the steeple of Holy Name Cathedral acquired a visible but slight lean to the southwest.
During the constructon of one of the PRR’s tunnels at Gallitzin circa 1902, a school above it collapsed or was damaged so badly that it had to be demolished, and then rebuilt. See the 5th paragraph of this webpage:
A little more on the basic point/ question of this thread:
A lot of railroad projects in cities “back in the day” were authorized and depended on an ordinance or franchise of the city being granted to allow/ enable the project - tunnels, “Chinese wall” grade separations, right-of-way leading to “Central” or “Union” stations/ terminals, and the like. Those ordinances were essentially condemnations or “takings” by eminent domain of some (or all) of the property rights - especially the subsurface ones - of the owners of the land above. That was the time when any compensation for that taking would have been demanded and paid.
Also, I doubt if anyone had the foresight to limit the tunnel to an exact maximum size, depth, or alignment, or to specify or restrict the method or results of the construction, etc. That would seem to limit the present-day ability or rights of the property owners to protest or obstruct the tunnel improvements.
However, in today’s society and culture and political process, acceding to at least a nominal environmental review/ impact statement and community impact meetings may be required or the better part of wisdom to avoid or minimize conflict and ‘grandstanding’ obstructionism / delays. Also, some of the more recent environmental laws that affect construction - prevention of pollution of waterways and air, etc. - are effective regardless of the age and terms of the original grant or ordinance.
Questions: Once a route(s) is proposed then the engineering is necessary. How are property owners compensated for the coring samples that are taken ? The four parallel tunnels proposed for Baltimore will require a wide sub surface ROW with many corings. How many corings can some of our engineer types anticipate ? Does the number depend on what is found underneath ?
Even if the project was approved tomorrow wouldn’t the corings be needed to determine what type of TBM(s) could be used ? Also any ventilation shafts, escape shafts, & cross connecting walk ways as well. Only then could cost estimates be put forward.
I pretty much assumed that would be the case for the B&P tunnel, and not likely to be a common problem with tunnels in rural areas. Of course it would be -um- more fun if the tunneling job ran into the lower reaches of a cesspool.
Tunneling in developed urban areas is an effective ‘mine field’. Beneath the streets are large building subterrainian basements (several levels deep), electric lines, water lines, sanitary sewer lines, storm water sewer lines, communication lines, subway lines and most important in the case of waterfront communities - SEA LEVEL.
Remember, water always seeks the lowest level. In calm weather, pumps can easily keep undesired water out of tunnels - when the skies open up and wring out the clouds at a 1 inch, 2 inches or more per hour rate - when your tunnel is below sea level, your pumps are fighting a losing battle as all the ‘overflow’ areas to pump the excess water to are already overloaded with what the storm is currently dumping in them.
With the tunnel on my territory I see this scenario reinacted with every severe T’storm that lingers over the area for more than a few minutes.
Want to see something interesting? Have a look at various websites concerning the Crossrail line being built in London. I’ve seen an exhibition over there about it and it is amazing! There is an ungodly amount of subways, walkways, conduits, sewers and so forth underneath London. They wove it through all of them like threading a needle and just to make it more fun is the unexploded Luftwaffe ordnance that they find from time to time. Amazing what the Brits are up to and the whole thing is almost finished. Ahead of schedule and under budget I’ve heard; now that’s hard to believe.