Re: Alpine Tunnel Palisades Repair

Justin Kerns Wrote:
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> Indeed my wording was a bit sloppy and I should
> always say Palisades Wall.  Or walls plural, as
> there are several along this stretch of grade.


It was only the very first sentence that caught my attention, Justin -

And probably only because I had posted a curmudgeonly nit-pick only five or six days ago on your previous thread.  In any event, a re-construction would be fantastic, but unfortunately not a project likely to come to fruition soon.  OTOH, perhaps there will be more emphasis on restoring our nation's infrastructure in the next year or two, hopefully including a 'WPA'-like effort to help re-boot the economy once the Covid-19 crisis is brought under control, so maybe you will get a gummint grant.  That would be super!!    

Meanwhile, here are few old photos of the DSP&P roadbed in the Palisades area, taken on a somewhat stormy early-September day in 2008.  (It started to snow while I was exploring the turntable area near the west portal of the tunnel).   As you pointed out, there are several other locations in addition to immediately beneath the Palisades where the DSP&P built sturdy rock walls to support its roadbed; here are a couple of them, downgrade from the big wall:


Here's the top of one of the smaller walls, looking downgrade with a bit of Sherrod Loop visible at the far right:


. . . and a long telephoto view taken earlier as I approached the loop from Pitkin, with descriptions added for those not familiar with the area:


Once past the detour around the short stretch of track that was re-laid around Sherrod Curve several years ago, the road was in pretty good shape.  I had no trouble at all driving all the way to the historic site near the west portal of the tunnel.  It looked like there had been a major slide many years before at the upper end of the Palisades Wall that had blocked the old wagon road, but the DSP&P right-of-way had long since been cleared:


The Palisades and the top of The Wall a few years before the washout.  I just noticed that there were some fairly big cracks near the middle of the wall even twelve years ago:


Hopefully it can all be restored in the next few years!   Thank You for your efforts!!    

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2020 12:37PM by Russo Loco.