Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910: The Bergen Hill Tunnels. Paper No. 1154Lavis, F.
History
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910: The Bergen Hill Tunnels. Paper No. 1154
Lavis, F.
Civil engineering -- Periodicals; Railroad tunnels -- Design and construction
After the headings were holed through, there was considerable difficulty
at times in getting a sufficient supply of concrete and rock packing
into the tunnel at the time it was required, and while undoubtedly the
transportation facilities may have had some influence in this, the
principal trouble lay in the difficulty of securing a sufficient supply
of proper stone for rock packing, and for the crusher.
While the excavation was progressing, the cars of muck, as they came
from the headings, were taken directly to the crusher and dumped into
it, the proportion of fine material being fairly constant and the supply
regular. At this time, also, a portion of the rock not required at the
crusher was dumped along the edge of the bank on the south side of the
approach, the larger stones rolling to the bottom where they were easily
available to be loaded into cars for rock packing, being entirely free
from the fine material; as this stone at the bottom of the bank was used
up, the supply was renewed, the rock suitable for rock packing being
automatically separated from the fine material as it rolled to the foot
of the slope.
After the excavation was completed, however, it was necessary to go into
the bulk of the storage piles to get material for the crusher and for
rock packing, and then the difficulties were materially increased by the
large quantity of fine material encountered, the proportion remaining
after the rock packing had been sorted out being too large to send
through the crusher. It was not only the handling over of this fine
material which caused delay, but the difficulty of disposing of it. On
rainy days the trouble was increased by the difficulty of getting men to
work in the open.
The delays due to transportation were usually caused by derailments,
which were more numerous than they should have been, and were due to the
condition of the rolling stock rather than to that of the track. These
delays, especially when they occurred in the early part of the day,
greatly increased the cost, by necessitating over-time work; a delay of
1 hour in the forenoon generally meant 2 hours’ work after 6 o’clock to
finish the day’s work.
The average number of cars handled (round trips of 1 car) during a day
(two 10-hour shifts) at the Hackensack end during January, 1908, when
the excavation and lining were in full swing, was about 125 cars of muck
and 200 cars of lining material, the former being hauled by locomotives
and the latter by mules.
_Methods of Handling Concrete in the Tunnels._--The concrete for the
floor, ditches, and foundations, was brought into the tunnel in
=V=-shaped steel, dumping cars, and dumped as near as possible to the
place it was to occupy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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