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

EMBANKMENTS.

The embankments to be formed fifteen feet wide on the surface, unless otherwise directed, with slopes of one and one half horizontal to one vertical. Wherever the embankment is formed from ditching on either side, such ditching, and the crest of the slopes thereof shall in no case approach within six feet, nor within double the depth of ditch, of the foot of the proper embankment slope, allowing always on one side for a double track; and no soft mud or muck shall be allowed to enter the bank. Wherever watercourses or new channels for rivers require to be formed, they shall not approach within once and one half of the depth of such stream, plus twenty-five feet. Care shall be taken in forming embankments to exclude all perishable material.

SUBSIDENCE.

To allow for the after settlement of materials on embankments, they shall, when delivered to and accepted by the second parties, be finished to the full width to the following heights above subgrades, namely: all banks below five feet in height to be finished three inches above subgrade; at ten feet in depth, five inches; at twenty feet, six inches; and twenty-eight feet, seven inches; at thirty-five feet, eight inches; and at forty feet in depth, nine inches above grade; and intermediate heights in proportion; the engineer having the power to change these proportions at his discretion.

EXTRA EXCAVATION AND EMBANKMENT.

Whenever it is considered necessary to increase the width of the road-way for turnouts, water stations, or depot grounds, whether in excavation or embankment, such work shall be done at the contract prices, as may be directed. The opening of foundation pits in simple excavation, where coffer-dams or such like expedients are not necessary, and in places where such expedients are necessary, all excavation above the water line shall also be done at such increase or decrease of the contract price as shall be deemed proper by the engineer.

EMBANKING AT BRIDGES AND CULVERTS.

The contractor for earthwork shall not carry forward in the usual way any embankments within fifty feet of any piece of masonry, finished or in progress, (counting from the bottom of the slopes,) but shall in every such case have the earth wheeled to the walls or abutments, and carefully rammed to such width and depth, and in such manner as may be directed, when the embankment may be carried on as usual. The expense attendant upon any damage or rebuilding of mason work, consequent on neglect of these directions, shall be charged to the account of the first party. In case the mason work shall not be finished when the embankment approaches it, the contractor shall erect a temporary structure to carry over the earth, and proceed with the embankment on the opposite side; and the expense of said structure shall be paid by, and charged to, the contractor for masonry, in case such contractor shall have delayed beyond the proper or required time, the construction of the mason work; but if the mason work could not have been ready in season for the bank, then shall the expense belong to the contractor for the earthwork, whose price for graduation is understood to comprehend all such contingencies. For the above work of wheeling and ramming efficiently the earth around any piece of masonry, the contractor shall be paid —— cents per cubic yard, by the engineer’s measurement.

ROADS AND WATERCOURSES.

The first party is to make good and convenient road crossings wherever directed, and shall also make such alterations of existing roads, or watercourses, or river channels, or such new pieces of these pertinent the section undertaken by him, as may be required, and shall be paid for such work, whether earth, rock, or masonry, the prices, and no more, applicable to this contract. And such road crossings or other alterations referred to, he shall make at and within such times and in such form and manner as the engineer shall direct; and whenever the operations of the first party interfere with a travelled road, public or private, either by crossing or by making required alterations on it, the first party shall so operate as to afford at all times a safe and free passage to the public travel; and the first party shall be liable for any damage to which the second parties or the railroad company may become lawfully liable by reason of his neglect to maintain a safe and properly protected passage for the current travel.