1958 - Longest N&W Tunnel

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Thu May 22 22:36:44 EDT 2008


Roanoke Times - May 18, 1958

CARBO, May 17 - A series of muffled explosions followed by the
cheers of drill crews marked the biggest event in the construction
near here on the Norfolk and Western Co.'s longest tunnel.
The event was yesterday's successful "hole through" when more
than 1,300 pounds of explosives shattered the last 23 feet of rock
separating drill crews who had been working from both sides of Sandy
Ridge to complete the 8,240-foot tunnel.
SOME OF the engineers stood with fingers crossed after the series
of explosions, but confident shouts arose from drill crew members.
And before the fumes and dust had cleared enough to see if the "shot"
had been effective and the engineers' calculations correct, the crew
members' confidence proved correct when voices were heard coming from
the other side of the 480-cubic-yard pile of blasted rock.
Crewmen who had been burrowing from the south side of the
23x16-foot tunnel rushed up the rock pile to greet crewmen who had
been drilling from the north side.
N&W engineers and officials of the contracting firm, the Ralph E.
Mills Co. of Frankfort, Ky., modestly agreed that the "hole through"
was successful. However, they probably had been thinking about what
Scottish poet Robert Burns had to say about "the best laid schemes o'
mice an' men gang aft agley."
The southern entrance of the tunnel is in Russell County, the
northern portal is in Dickenson County.
Actual drilling of the tunnel started July 3, 1957 when the south
side of Sandy Ridge was penetrated. Workmen started boring into the
north side of the mountain last Sept. 30.
Officials hope to start moving coal through the tube Aug. 1.
The Sandy Ridge tunnel is the toughest link in about seven miles
of new N&W track which will carry millions of tons of coal from
Clinchfield Coal Co.'s new Moss No. 3 mine to Clinchfield's new
preparation plant. Most of the coal will go to Appalachian Power
Co.'s multi-million-dollar steam generating plant now nearing completion here.
Appalachian, Clinchfield and the N&W are the principals in a
giant industrial development project in this area that will represent
a total outlay of close to $100 million.The N&W tunnel and rail
extension will cost approximately $7 million.
L.A. DURHAM JR., division engineer of the N&W's Pocahontas
Division, said the new tunnel is the longest in the N&W system and
the longest railroad tunnel in the states of Virginia and West
Virginia. It no doubt is longer than the most extensive tunnels in
may other states, but Durham said he did not have statistics on the
other railroad tunnels. The N&W's 7,107-foot long Elkhorn tunnel at
Elkhorn, W.Va., was the longest before the Sandy Ridge tube came into
existance.
Construction of the new tunnel was under the general supervsion
of A.B. Stone, N&W's chief engineer, and his assistant, B.E. Crumpler.
Officalis on hand for yesterday's "hole through" included Durham;
Ralph E. Mills, president of the contracting construction company
which bears his name; C.W. Fiery, veteran N&W resident engineer, and
W.B. Cole, also an N&W resident engineer.
Fiery, a veteran railroad tunnel builder who soon will be
retiring, was given the honor of "throwing the switch" which set off
the final series of explosions. He stood with other engineers,
construction company officials, drillers and newsmen in the south
section of the tunnel about 1,100 feet from the final section of rock
when he detonated the 26 cases of special mine explosives.
the electrically-timed explosions went off one after the other,
each followed by a muffled sound, a slight jar and rushing air from
the concussion. The "hole through" was made 4,750 feet from the south
entrance of the mile and one-half-plus tunnel which is 700 feet below
the peak of Sandy Ridge.
Drillers had put a test hole through the remaining 23 feet of
rock before drilling about 100 holes in the faces of the remaining
wall of rock on each side.
AFTER THE dust and fumes had cleared "muckers" started the big
job of removing the blasted rock with their elmco loaders. The elmcos
scoop up the rock and transfer it to dumpers which take it out of the
tunnel to a point where it is loaded onto big Euclid trucks for the
"long haul."
Sandy Ridge tunnel is a straight-line tube (no curves) in the
Clinch Valley district of the N&W's Pocahontas Division. A total of
170,000 cubic yards of rock and dirt has been taken out of the tube
and when it is completed workman will have put in it 4,117,000 pounds
of steel tunnel liner and rail.
Division engineer Durham said the drilling operation was "plagued
by coal seams" in the mountain, explaining that hitting coal seams
make tunnel construction more difficult. The primary formation of
Sandy Ridge is sandstone with the secondary type of rock being shale.
The next phase of the tunnel construction will be the pouring of
concrete for the floor and curb walls. Durham said track will then be
laid and the tube will be lined with concrete "under traffic."

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link





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