Is there any standard procedure to repair washouts? Specifically, my question is is it more common to A) keep the original route, re-fill the land, and then reinforce with rocks or concrete to prevent future washouts or B) create a new ROW bypassing the location of the washout?
No…You react to the deal you’re handed, what you have to work with locally and how loud the operating department is whining. Decisions on help are detrmined at various levels.
No two events are ever the same.
As with so many operating and the like questions posed on these forums the are no single answers. A washout on one railroad may mean the end of the railroad or just the line it is on; or it could be total renewal. The NYSW said no to repairing and reopening the line from Chenango Forks to Norwich and Sherburne NY after the 2006 Floods because there was no traffic to warrant it; the Wellsville, Addison, and Galeton in the 70’s flooding in Potter County, PA was told by the EPA what had to be done to repair a 70+ year old line so the railroad also said no.
But on others lines repairs would be made based on frequency of traffic, weight of traffic loads, locomotive loadings, number of tracks, and whatever else they would have to be considerd at that place at that time. (The DL&W, after a hurricane in the Pocono Mountains in the 50’s, rebuilt the double track mainline near Paradise and Cresco but single tracked with CTC the line from east of East Stroudsburg through the Delaware Water Gap to Slateford Jct, PA and on to Port Morris, NJ replacing a double track bridge with a single track one at Marshalls Creek, PA. All your ideas and answers, Sawtooth500, are possiblities. And so are dozens of others. Each washout has to be dealt with on a one by one, place by place, circumstance by circumstance basis by the railroad.
In mountainous terrain where the railroad is in a deep stream valley, it probably already chose and has the best location - all the alternatives would involve moving vast quantities of soil and/ or rock, so the cheapest and fastest restoration is to rebuild it in the same place pretty much as you describe.
But not always - in 1983 a huge mudslide cut the D&RGW’s Soldier Summit line near the town of Thistle, Colorado, and so the line was relocated, which included drilling a new 3,000 ft. tunnel in only 67 days. See the article “When Thistle Vanished” by F. Hol Wagner Jr. (from Trains magazine, July 1983, pages 14-18; used with author’s permission) at: http://utahrails.net/drgw/thistle-vanished.php and the linked map and photo there as well.
The linked editorial cartoon on the EPA’s environmental impact study is kind of timeless, and should get a chuckle from those here who haven’t seen it before- see: http://utahrails.net/images/thistle-grondahl.jpg
In contrast, at the similar big mudslide on the UP in the Cascade Mountains a couple years ago, the comparatively short sections of damaged track were rebuilt pretty much in the same place - there was not much choice, as those segments had to connect to the adjoining main line track to keep the same grade, plus it was in a national forest or similar protected location.
However, in flat terrain such as along the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers, a major washout might justify considering rebuilding in a different location, esp. if the right-of-way needed can be acquired quickly and affordably. That would clearly be preferable than trying to rebuild the roadbed in a moving water environment, and the earthwork quantities would be way less than in the mountainous scenarios above.&nbs
As others have said, the railroad will do whatever it takes. Might just be rebuilding the fill, perhaps with better materials or reinforcement to (hopefully) prevent it happening again. Very occasionally a timber trestle might replace the washed out section, either temporarily or as a permanent fix.
Creating a new right of way to bypass the washout can be a solution, but as already noted often topography makes that impracticable. Even when feasible from an engineering standpoint, if the railroad doesn’t already own the land the delay involved in acquiring the necessary property means it is not a viable solution for a problem that needs fixing “yesterday if not sooner”.
Sometimes there can be a temporary fix on the original alignment and some years later, after detailed engineering studies, the line may get moved away from a troublesome area. It is very expensive, so usually would be considered only at a location with frequent and regular washouts.
John