Handbook of Railroad Construction; For the use of American engineers. / Containing the necessary rules, tables, and formulæ for the location, construction, equipment, and management of railroads, as built in the United States.

by George L. Vose

TRANSPORT OF MATERIAL.

116. In the formation of embankments it is not always advisable to make the whole bank from an adjoining cut or cuts. The length of haul may be too long. In this case it is customary to waste a part of the cut and to borrow earth from some nearer point for the bank. That the transport shall be effected in the most economical manner, the product of the cube of earth, by the mean distance, (the distance between the centres of gravity, of excavation and embankment) must be a minimum. To determine the theoretical minimum expense, the problem becomes very complicated on account of the great number of variable elements entering therein; and the result obtained is applicable only to a particular case. Local circumstances more than any other thing, determine the position of a borrow pit, and the path over which the material is to be transported.