One of the first recommendations made by me in my report of seven years
ago was that the Government build a railroad from Seward to Fairbanks in
Alaska. Five years ago you intrusted to me the direction of this work.
The road is now more than two-thirds built, and Congress at this
session, after exhaustively examining into the work, has authorized an
additional appropriation sufficient for its completion. The showing made
before Congress was that the road had been built without graft: every
dollar has gone into actual work or material. It has been built without
giving profits to any large contractors, for it has been constructed
entirely by small contractors or by day's labor. It has been built
without touch of politics: every man on the road has been chosen
exclusively for ability and experience. It has been well and solidly
built as a permanent road, not an exploiting road. It has been built for
as little money as private parties could have built it, as all competent
independent engineers who have seen the road advise.
Edwin F. Wendt, of the Interstate Commerce Commission, in charge of
valuation of the railroads of the United States from Pittsburgh to
Boston, after an investigation into the manner in which the Alaskan
Railroad was constructed and its cost, reported to me as follows:
In concluding, it is not amiss to again state that after the full
study which was given to the property during our trip, we are
satisfied that the project is being executed rapidly and
efficiently by men of experience and ability. It is believed that
it is being handled as cheaply as private contractors could handle
it under the circumstances.
The road has not been built as soon as expected because each year we
have exhausted our appropriation before the work contemplated had been
done. We could not say in October of one year what the cost of anything
a year or more later would be, and we ran out of money earlier than
anticipated. It has not been built as cheaply as expected because it has
been built on a rising market for everything that went into its
construction--from labor, lumber, food supplies, machinery, and steel to
rail and ocean transportation. I believe, however, it can safely be said
that no other piece of Government construction or private construction
done during the war will show a less percentage of increase over a cost
that was estimated more than four years ago.
The men have been well housed and well fed. Their wages have been good
and promptly paid; there has been but one strike, and that was four
years ago and was settled by Department of Labor experts fixing the
scale of wages. The men have had the benefit of a system of compensation
for damages like that in the Reclamation Service and Panama Canal. They
have had excellent hospital service, and our camps and towns have been
free of typhoid fever and malaria. That the men like the work is
testified by the fact that hundreds who "came out" the past two years,
attracted by the high wages of war industries, are now anxious to return
to Alaska.
There has been but one setback in the construction, and that was the
washing out of 12 miles of tracks along the Nenana River. This is a
glacial stream which, when the snows melt, comes down at times with
irresistible force. In this instance it abandoned its long accustomed
way and cut into a new bed and through trees that had been standing for
several generations, tearing out part of the track which had been laid.
The work of locating and constructing the road has been left in the
hands of the engineers appointed by yourself. The only instruction
which they received from me was that they should build the road as if
they were working for a private concern, selecting the best men for the
work irrespective of politics or pressure of any kind. As a result, we
have a force that has been gathered from the construction camps of the
western railroads, made up of men of experience and proved capacity.
That they have done their work efficiently, honestly, and at reasonable
cost is my belief.
It is not possible during the construction of a railroad to tell what it
costs per mile because all the foundation work, the construction of
bases from which to work, the equipment for construction, and much of
the material is a charge which must be spread over the entire completed
line. The best estimate that can be made to-day as to the newly
constructed road is that it has cost between $70,000 and $80,000 per
main-line mile, or between $60,000 and $70,000 per mile of track.
This cost per mile includes the building of the most difficult and
expensive stretch of line along the entire route from Seward to
Fairbanks--that running along Turnagain Arm, which is sheer rock rising
precipitously from the sea for nearly 30 miles. There are miles of this
road which have cost $200,000 per mile. Even to blast a mule trail in
one portion of this route cost $25,000 a mile.
The only Government-built railroad--that across the Isthmus of
Panama--cost $221,052 per mile. The only two recently built railroads in
the United States are (1) the Virginian, built by H.H. Rogers, which
cost exclusive of equipment $151,000 per mile, with labor at from $1.35
to $1.75 per day and all machinery, fuel, rails, and supplies at its
door, and (2) the Milwaukee line to Puget Sound, which is estimated as
having cost $130,000 per mile exclusive of equipment.
The work has been conducted with its main base at Anchorage, which is at
the head of Cook Inlet. The point was chosen as the nearest point from
which to construct a railroad into the Matanuska coal fields. That was
the primary objective of the railroad, to get at the Matanuska coal.
From Anchorage it was also intended to drive farther north through the
Susitna Valley and across Broad Pass, and to the south along Turnagain
Arm toward the Alaska Northern track. To secure coal for Alaska was the
first need. So in addition to Anchorage as a base, one was also started
at Nenana, on the Tanana River, from which to reach the Nenana coal
fields lying to the south. If these two fields were open, one would
supply the coast of Alaska and one the interior. This program has been
acted upon, with the result that the Matanuska field is open to
tidewater with a downgrade road all the way. The Nenana road has been
pushed far enough south to touch a coal mine near the track, which may
obviate the immediate necessity for reaching into the Nenana field
proper.
There is an open stretch across Broad Pass to connect the Susitna
Valley with the road coming down from Nenana. This gap closed, there
will be through connection between Seward and Fairbanks.