The completion of the railroad from Greenfield to the tunnel has been
contracted for with B. N. Farren, for the sum of $545,000, exclusive of
the cost of depot buildings, turn-tables, and engineering expenses. The
road to be opened for travel to Shelburne Falls by the 15th of November,
1867, and to the tunnel by the 15th of July, 1868. A lease of the same
has been executed to the Fitchburg and the Vermont and Massachusetts
Railroad Companies, at a rent of $30,000 per year, to expire on the
completion of the tunnel, or whenever the work on the same shall be
stopped, by competent authority.
Mr. Farren commenced work under his contract about the 20th of October.
At this time there were about four miles of track,--exclusive of that
which had to be removed with the trestle-bridges,--built by Mr. Haupt.
Some portions of the track were in fair condition; but the larger part
of it must be relaid. Many of the ties are of hemlock; they are all
decayed and must be removed, and new ones substituted. None of the
bridges were strong enough to be used, and the timber of which they were
constructed is too much decayed to be used for building purposes: There
is on hand in addition to the track laid, chairs, or connecting joints,
sufficient to lay five miles of rails; also about ten thousand chestnut
ties. Such of these as had been properly piled are sound. Many of them,
however, are so much decayed, as to be unfit for use.
The road-bed has in many places been injured by rain and frost. At
exposed points near the river, it is entirely destroyed. Comparatively
speaking, there was little masonry on the line. With the exception of
one pier, the bridge masonry at Green River will be taken down. All the
deep ravines were crossed by trestle work, and consequently there were
but few culverts. Of these some small ones are still standing in good
condition. Of the bank wall built, about one-half remains,--the
remainder has either fallen down, or will be taken down and rebuilt.
Very little alteration will be made in the general location of the line
or its gradients. The curvature will be very much modified and improved.
Some sharp and reversed curves will be entirely saved by the
substitution of straight lines. Others, where the expense of reduction
is not very heavy, will be materially changed. The alterations below
Shelburne Falls are substantially as follows:--
A straight line substituted for one 2°, one 4° and one 6° curve.
One 2° curve substituted for one 4° curve.
Four 4° " " " four 6° "
One 3° " " " one 6° "
Three 3° " " " three 6° "
Five 5° 30' " " " five 6° "
One 3° 30' " " " two 6° "
One 4° and two 2° curve substituted for three 6° curve,
saving 45° and 60 feet.
One 5° 40' curve substituted for one 7° curve.
One 6° " " " one 7° "
Three 7° " " " three 8° "
One 5° " " " two 5° and one 6° curve.
Two 3° " " " two 6° curve,
saving 30° and 40 feet.
The same plan for improving the line above the falls will be pursued, so
that when completed, the road combining the alignment with the gradients
will, in the judgment of the engineer, be "superior for doing
economically a heavy traffic, to any railroad in New England which runs
east and west."
At Green River there will be substituted for Mr. Haupt's bridge of 700
feet built on a curved line one of 470 feet, to be constructed on a
straight line. The remainder of the ravine to be made a solid
embankment. All the bridges on the line are to be "Howe's Truss," and
equal in strength and durability to any in New England.
The trestle-work has been removed, and the ravines where it was placed
are being filled with substantial masonry and solid embankments.
On the first day of November Mr. Farren had about fifty men employed; on
the first day of December, two hundred and seventy-five, and on the
14th of December, when one of the Committee visited the line, he had
over three hundred.
About one-third of the masonry for Green River bridge has been built,
and the stone is quarried for the other bridges. Nearly one thousand
yards of culvert masonry and three hundred yards of bank wall have been
constructed, and from forty to fifty thousand yards of earth removed.
The timber for Green River bridge is sawed and will be framed in
January. The material for all the bridges below Shelburne Falls has been
contracted for, to be delivered early in the spring. Twenty thousand
ties have been purchased, together with posts and boards for fences. The
work at the rock-cut near Shelburne Falls will be commenced in the month
of January.
On the line below Shelburne Falls, there will remain in the road, the
following sharp curves, to wit: In the track as laid and not disturbed,
four of six degrees, and in the remainder of the line, six of six
degrees, three of seven, and two of eight. One of the eight degree
curves, is through a long heavy cut, and cannot be reduced without great
expense. The other is near the Deerfield River crossing, where all
trains will be required to run slow. It cannot be avoided without a
tunnel or a curve over the entire bridge. The three seven degree curves
occur in heavy rock-cuttings, and these are all the sharp curves that
are contained in a space of thirteen miles.
Above Shelburne Falls the alignment and grades are more favorable. From
the tunnel to the Deerfield River crossing, below Shelburne Falls, a
distance of twenty-two miles, there is but one ascending grade going
east; its location is about two miles west of the falls; it is one-half
mile in length, and is thirty-five feet to the mile. Within the same
space going east, there are the following descending grades, to wit: One
of forty-five feet per mile for 2,000 feet, one of forty feet for 6,000
feet, one of twenty-eight feet for 2,500 feet, and one, near the village
of Shelburne Falls, of fifty feet per mile for 5,300 feet. The remaining
grades are from five to twenty feet per mile.
The sharp curves remaining after the proposed improvements will be as
follows, to wit: Near the depot grounds at Shelburne, and running
through the village, there is necessarily one eight degree curve, and
on the seventeen miles between the falls and the tunnel, there occur
thirteen six degree curves. A slight change in laying the track will
increase the radius of these curves to 1,000 feet. This in some cases
can be done.
The county commissioners have been called out and have made an
adjudication in regard to the public crossings and alterations of
highways between Greenfield and Shelburne Falls.
The whole work below the falls is under good progress, and is being
prosecuted with great vigor. The laying of the track can be commenced as
early in the spring as the season will admit, and its extension to
Shelburne Falls, may, in the opinion of the engineer, be expected early
in October.
It appears from the foregoing, that of the work now in progress on the
road and tunnel, their is performed by contract,--the construction of
the railroad from Greenfield to the East End of the tunnel; the
enlargements east and west in the tunnel at the West Shaft; the
excavation of the New Shaft; and the arch masonry and excavation at the
West End; while the work at the East End, at the Central Shaft, the
heading and lifting at the West Shaft, the lifting at the New Shaft, and
the work at the brickyard has been performed by the State. No criterion
has been afforded enabling the Committee to determine upon the
comparative economy of the different modes of operation.
The commissioners in their able report in 1863, speaking of the manner
of constructing the tunnel, say: "It would not be wise nor according to
any precedent for the State to expect to get the work done at the
contract price if it should turn out to cost more. It would certainly
get no abatement if the price was found to be exorbitant. We are clearly
of the opinion that it should not be constructed by contract, excepting
in so far as parts of the work may be in detail to the men actually at
work upon it, and even such contracts should' not be permanent in their
character." That the commissioners in April last entertained the idea of
inaugurating and continuing the contract system so far as the same
should prove economical for the State, satisfactorily appears in the
following letter:
BOSTON April 25, 1866.
Hon. TAPPAN WENTWORTH, _Chairman of Hoosac Tunnel and Troy
and Greenfield Railroad Committee._
DEAR SIR:--Hearing that questions have arisen in regard to the propriety
of contracting the work upon the Hoosac Tunnel, it may not be improper
for me to say that that subject (contemplated in the Act of 1863,) has
for a long time engaged the serious attention of the commissioners, who
have already a contract for constructing a portion of the West End,
before the governor and council, awaiting their approval under section 3
of chapter 214 of the Acts of 1863.
When the economic value of their new facilities shall be demonstrated,
they expect further to avail of this system 80 far as the interest of
the State (as represented by the rapid, economical and certain progress
of the work,) shall warrant.
While the high prices now prevailing will probably render the letting of
large jobs at this time injudicious, they are not of short contracts, or
of letting portions of the work to the miners by the piece.
Very truly yours, J. W. BROOKS, _Chairman_.
The Committee coincide with the views of the commissioners. And the
justness of their remarks, that the State must not expect to have the
work done at less than its cost, is borne out by the operations under
the contract for the West End enlargement, where the State has increased
the contract from four to seven dollars and fifty cents a perch, in
order to insure the miners a compensation for their labor.
It may be proper to state in this connection, that the labor done upon
the road and tunnel by early contractors, has not tended to a "rapid,
economical and certain progress of the work," and that if even the whole
work should be put under contract, the interest of the Commonwealth
would require the continuance of a commission, and the services of an
engineer of the highest skill and integrity to superintend its
performance in order to avoid a loss and damage similar to that which
occurred to the State while the work was under the nominal control of
the Troy and Greenfield Railroad corporation.
The retirement of all the gentlemen who comprised the board of
commissioners, first appointed under the legislation of 1862, affords
the Committee an opportunity to acknowledge the eminent talent and
ability which they respectively possessed for the discharge of the
important duties assigned to them, and to bear testimony to the industry
and intelligence displayed in their elaborate and comprehensive report
upon the subject of the railroad and tunnel in 1863. It was fortunate
for the State in that crisis in the affairs of this enterprise to be
able to command so much practical information upon a question so
interesting and important, and at the same time so difficult of
solution.
But in addition to the duty of furnishing an opinion of the feasibility
and mode of constructing the tunnel, and of the propriety of opening
this line of railway communication with the West, the commission was
instituted to carry on and superintend a most important and difficult
public work, involving the expenditure of several million dollars. Yet
each of the gentlemen composing the board was engaged in other duties
requiring substantially their whole time and attention. Under these
circumstances their personal observance of the progress of the work
could not be given to a degree satisfactory to the public, or essential
to the interests of the State, and the responsibility of the operations
came to devolve upon the engineer at the works, and the chairman of the
commissioners in Boston. These irksome labors were discharged with
diligent faithfulness, and as the event has proved with a physical
suffering to one of them that has called forth a general expression of
regret and sorrow.
By chapter 214 of the Acts of 1863, the governor is authorized to draw
his warrant on the treasurer for such sums as may be required, from time
to time, by the commissioners, for the purpose of carrying out the
provisions of law for the completion of the tunnel and railroad. The
commissioners under this enactment have made monthly requisitions upon
the governor, transmitting at the same time vouchers for the expenses of
the preceding month; and upon this information and requisition the
warrants have been drawn. By the 293 chapter of the Acts of 1866, a
general supervision of the work is vested in the governor and council,
with power to "correct abuses, remedy defects, and impose and enforce
requirements in such manner as the interests of the Commonwealth shall,
in their judgment, require." As the commissioners exercise a delegated
power, there would have been a manifest propriety in requiring of them,
from time to time, a report upon the progress of the work, and of their
own doings even under the Act 1863, so that the governor might have been
more fully provided with information touching the necessity of the
requisitions. But under the Act of 1866, it appears essential that the
commissioners should report monthly to the governor and council the
general plan of operations pursued, the progress of the work, and the
manner and extent of their own superintendence of the same.
The Committee are therefore of opinion that the commission should be
reorganized in such manner that the State could command the whole time
of its members: that a greater degree of personal attention should be
given by them to the work than it has heretofore received: that the
commissioners should keep minutes of their doings which shall be open to
the inspection of the governor and council, and the appropriate
legislative committee: that their monthly communications to the governor
and council should embrace, in addition to the past, and the requisition
for the current month, a report of the operations, the progress of the
work during the previous, month, and the manner and extent of their own
superintendence of the same.
The Committee are also of opinion that a due regard to economy in
conducting the enterprise requires that the commissioners should at
once, by experiment, ascertain the probable time required to excavate
the enlargement of the tunnel, and that the work upon the enlargement be
regulated and pursued with a view of avoiding any unnecessary delay in
operating the road after the heading is removed.
* * * * *
In concluding this Report, the Committee cannot forbear to express their
obligations to Mr. Doane, the engineer in charge of the work, for the
assistance rendered by him in aid of their labors, nor withhold their
approbation of the faithful and able manner in which he has discharged
the duties of his office, so far as they have come under their
observation. The Committee are indebted to Mr. Hill, the superintendent
of labor, for his uniform attention during their examinations, and they
fully recognize his capacity for his position, and his interest in the
operations. They are likewise indebted to Mr. Hall, the intelligent
master of the machine shop, for very valuable information concerning his
particular department. And also to Mr. Field, the able and efficient
engineer of the railroad, for a very satisfactory report upon that
portion of the work under his direction.