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Trains News Wire FLASH: Collapse of Great Salt Lake causeway culvert ‘imminent’
I remember reading about this in trains when I was a kid, a great story on the “Bear” of the SP rebuilding the causeway.
A USGS site on line says current lake level is about 15 feet below the all time high in 1985.
It sure is more important, Mr. Norton, since the railroad has the WP tracks to use and the possibility that they should consider using that line exclusively since the continual rise in the lake level requires that they raise the roadbed periodically.
Don’t worry. The environ-mentalists will find a new species of orange spotted blue striped saltwater frog owl fish which will have the effect of stopping any plans for a new bridge. Then the NIMBY gangs will arrive and claim houseboat anchor spots near the track and blame the railroad for making noise.
Why do I get the impression Great Salt Lake is like many other lakes? Some decades it is up in elevation. Others, down. Natural cycle of these things. Meanwhile, if the Illinois Tollway could sleeve a whole bunch of culverts between Elgin and Rockford about two decades ago, why can’t the railroad? And in this instance, they don’t even have to dig up an adjacent corn field.
In today’s world the culvert is more important the operation of a railroad.
Couldn’t they engineer an insert into the culvert to keep it partially open until they build the new bridge?
Since the peak water height of the mid-80s the lake has gone down.
In some cases of emergency repairs the permitting agencies know a public utility has to do environmentally sensitive work immediately, then go back to perform mitigation if damage to the environment was done. I would think the UP lawyers would explore this option. The precedent for this concept was the rapid repair to the burned out American River bridge in Sacramento a decade or so ago.
With no idea of the culvert’s actual diameter, pondering the concept of lining the culvert led to thoughts of sacrifice.
Get some tank cars with adequate length of progressively very slightly varied diameter, allowing one to fit inside another, or cut out some of the metal to make the fit.
Circumcise the tanks ends from multiple cars and sandwich enough strength, tank within tank, and you’ve got a 10 feet wide culvert-catheter.
Insertion through the at-risk culvert…Scuba, submersibles, riggers, crane operaters.
And, there existed in the early 1980’s 12- and 16-wheel tank cars longer than 60 feet.
How big’s the culvert? OK, more tank car catheters?
How much longer is the WP route than the lake crossing? Also what is the diameter of the existing culvert and what is the weight bearing requirement of that culvert? I would hope that UP has addressed the WP and re-sleeving the culvert alternates but would like to hear about any results.
About thirty years ago, when the level of the lake rose to the point that pumps were bought and installed west of a range of hills so the level could be pumped down, the UP had to protect the WP tracks, which are right at the end of the lake.
The pumps have not been used since that year.
Leave it to Guse to say something exceptionally dumb.
The UP should forget about the high maint. cost former SP route across the lake and use the better Route via the former WP. The toe routes rejoin at Well. NV anyway where the paired tack begins. The route over Silver Zone Pass is 1% curve compensated… and the UP owns both routes.
A further point is that track circuits across the lak needed for signals e on the former SP route are very difficult to maintain and that also hinders train operation when a circuit fails.
I have all the confidence in the world that the Government will screw this situation up too.
Can they spread out the weight using a large number of culverts of a smaller size?
Folks yu are missing the point. While submerged deterioration of the culverts were slowed because of lack of oxygenation to speed corrosion. Now that the lake has dropped significantly ( in some places you can walk from the shore to Antelope Island) those metal culverts are exposed and rapid galvanic action has reduced the integrity of the culvert by a factor of 10. Since flow fo water from the north arm to the south arm is mandated by Corps of Engineer and EPA regulations, the bridge spanning the old locations is the ultimate solution. Filling in the old spot for a few months (especially in the Winter) when the Lake is at it’s low point would hurt no one and eliminate derailments and possible contamination of the Lake by same. Nobody will be hurt but the Brine Flies and who cares about them. Let the UP fix it’s problem using good engineering rather than a haphazard, emergency inspired solution…
The old Central/Union Pacific line through Promontory could be straightened and graded. Not much out that way.
The old Central/Union Pacific line through Promitory could be straightened and graded. Not much out that way.
The old Central/Union Pacific line through Promontory could be straightened and graded. Not much out that way.