Public Relations and
Advertising Department
Windsor Station Montreal Que. H3C
3E4
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Volume 10
Number 15
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November 19,
1980
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Track Grading Work Slowed by
Weather
By Carol Caney
Final Touch: Earth movers
putting the final touch on CP Rail's new grade at Lake Louise wait for a grain
train to pass. About 2.3 million cubic yards of earth are being moved to reduce the
grade to one percent on the climb from Lake Louise to the Great
Divide.
LAKE LOUISE - Contractors
preparing the grade for CP Rail's 5.5-mile double-tracking
project here resumed double shifts after Thanksgiving in a push to finish the job
before winter sets in.
With 15 miles of the roadbed still unfinished and mid-November targeted
for its completion, crews have been working 21 hours a day, seven days a week. In
all, about 2.3 million cubic yards of earth are being moved to reduce the grade to
one percent on the climb from Lake Louise to the Great Divide.
This stage is behind schedule because much of the borrow material CP Rail planned
to use was too wet. Though Parks Canada assisted in locating other pits, some even
closer to where the fill was required, the weather was no help. One
17-day stretch in early summer saw 5 1/2 inches of rain.
"We thought it would never stop", says CP Rail Special Projects Supervisor
Dino Piovesan. "It rained all summer. If Lake Louise is your idea of paradise,
you don't know how dismal it can be when it rains".
HEAD START
Originally the roadbed was to be finished by the end of September, and plans were
to start laying ties and track this fall. Now it looks as if it'll have to be done
next year. "We are doing everything we can to get a head start then", Mr.
Piovesan says, "because the new section of track is to be in service in
May".
A yard full of hardwood ties have been "pre-spiked" in
readiness for an early start on track construction in the spring of '81. A
combination of concrete ties and hardwood ties will be used along with continuous
welded rail to build the 5.5 miles of new track.
BRIDGES COMPLETED
Two bridges over the Bow River and one over the Trans-Canada Highway
have been completed, and the slopes of their approaches have already been seeded.
The workforce numbered 120 at its peak.
The Lake Louise project completes the $45-million first stage of CP
Rail's double-tracking three of the steeper west-bound
grades through the mountains. Eleven miles west of Salmon Arm and 45 miles near
Revelstoke are already in service. Phase two involves 20 miles of track, almost
half of it underground where the Connaught Tunnel goes under Rogers Pass, and will
cost $300 million.
INCREASE TONNAGE
CP Rail expects double-tracking to improve its performance two ways -
allowing it to increase tonnage on each train and move them more quickly, thus
increasing main line capacity between Calgary and Vancouver.
A 45 percent capacity increase will be realized when both
double-tracking phases are complete.
Exacting Work: Survey crews
check the new grade where it begins near the Lake Louise station. Abundant rain
this summer has slowed the double-tracking work in the area.
This CP Rail News article is copyright 1980 by
Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All
photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company.
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