SoCal HSR's Engineering Challenge

[WhoozOn1st]

This is a piece that largely ignores the political gamesmanship and extraneous riggamarole - for once - to focus instead on the physical challenges of building the southern section of the proposed California high speed rail route; from Bakersfield to Los Angeles.

http://www.latimes.c...0,4082877.story

Bullet-train planners face huge engineering challenge

"Civil War veteran William Hood arrived at the mosquito-infested swamps near Bakersfield in 1874 to build a rail line that would soar through the Tehachapi Mountains, linking the Bay Area and Southern California for the first time.

"Hood, Southern Pacific Railroad's chief assistant engineer, assembled 3,000 Chinese immigrants with picks, shovels and dynamite. They snaked the track up treacherous mountain ridges, twisted it back and forth around canyons and punched it through sheer rock in a series of 18 tunnels — climbing 4,025 vertical feet along the way.

"It's a feat no one has attempted to duplicate. Until now."

_______

"The sheer scale and scope of the bullet train's push into Southern California, including traversing complex seismic hazards, would rival construction of the state's massive freeway system, water transport networks and its port complexes. It is likely to be viewed in future decades as an engineering marvel — or a costly folly. If nothing else, it is ambitious."

The print edition includes a couple fine photos of freight trains snaking through the Tehachapi mountains that unfortunately are not replicated online.

 

[George Harris]

OK: I've read the article and looked at the pictures, and also read some of the comments. WOW! Really brought all the anti-rail people out screaming, shouting, running around in circles and waving their arms. Also these comments are fairly fact-free in many instancles. For some information from the CAHSR web site, go to:

http://www.cahighspe...d_Palmdale.aspx

http://www.cahighspe...os_Angeles.aspx

If you want to see some information on the Grapeviine route, see:

http://www.cahighspe...3eabf4d054c.pdf

As to the yelling and screaming about how steep the grades, here are some facts from the Feb 2012 report on the Bakersfield to Palmdale section:

Alternative T3-1: Maximum grade of 2.75% over 12 miles

Alternative T3-2: Maximum grade of 2.50% over 20 miles

Alternative NEW T3: Maximum grade of 3.3% over 8 miles

The total elevation climbed is the same for all cases. Nothing being proposed is off in the realm of fantasyland.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

I've read the article and looked at the pictures, and also read some of the comments. WOW! Really brought all the anti-rail people out screaming, shouting, running around in circles and waving

I gave up reading the comments after slogging through 30 or so of about 400+ at the time, then doing some skimming. It was impossible to continue amid the endless childishness: namecalling, infantile accusations, endless ad hominem garbage in place of true argument, and an almost total absence of reasoned debate of any kind. Anybody who attempts to rise above the morass gets attacked and lost in the mindless maelstrom.

I hold the Los Angeles Times responsible for allowing their comments to become such a vile cesspool. I've never seen such low grade trash at, for instance, the New York Times website. It simply isn't allowed.

And the story wasn't even about the political side of the project. It's a straightforward look at the technical aspects of building the railroad. That such a piece triggers such a violent, ill-tempered, and malevolent outpouring is an extremely pathetic commentary on the inability of large numbers of people to engage in civil public discussion.

 

[Paulus]

Hah, you should see the comments on the OC Register, especially before they switched over to requiring a Facebook log-in. LA Times is tame. Of course, the reporting is usually trash as well with the Register.