Re: I know this borders on heresy

Assuming a 310 ft. long X 100 ft. high fill, some back-of-the-envelope calculations show the following:

* The fill would contain roughly 200,000 cubic yards of material when properly compacted and would be 350 ft. wide at the base.

* Excavation, transport and placement of the fill material might run in the $12-$15/yard range. Admittedly, this is a wild-axxed guess, as we have no idea where the material would come from. The railroad only owns a single strip of right-of-way in the area, and adjacent landowners would be unlikely to tolerate a massive borrow pit on their property. Hence the material would need to be hauled in. If anything, the $12-15 is low.

* This puts the cost in the vicinity of $3,000,000, or more than the estimated cost of repair. It does not take into account the associated environmental costs of large-scale filling of a watercourse, nor purchase & placement of 400 feet of large-diameter culvert material.

It's a worthy suggestion, but probably not practical.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2010 05:03PM by Jeff A..