Western Railroad Discussion > Lakeside Sub MP 679.28 Lucin UT

Attached photos are of the emergency bridge construction after the dam fails on 21 Mile Canyon in NV . The water breached the UP railroad fill on the Lakeside Sub  MP 679.28 washing out two culverts at this location. The replacement structure will be 180' PCB spans ( Precast Concrete Spans - Ballast Deck ) on steel H pile and Concrete caps.
1 ) washout on 02 12 2017.
2) crews and equipment have arrived to start construction , grading and piledriving has started.
3) Pile driving continues , precast concrete spans have been unloaded on site and other material is staged .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/17 14:20 by Bridg3guy.

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I had heard about this from an engineer friend. Thanks for posting the photos so I can see it in real life.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Yikes!!!  Yep, that's a mess.  

These crews will get plenty of work as there are washouts all over the west. No doubt more to come with the current rains in southern CA and more rain to come in northern CA in a few days.

It was kinda silly they had just two steel culverts at that critical point that drains hundreds of square miles in NE Nevada and NW Utah. I'm guessing SP didn't want to maintain the trestle there and filled it in years ago. Building a bridge will set things right and avoid a repeat in the future.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Word is that the Ogden - Elko pool was abolished.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

I have heard it will be two weeks to fix this one.

Best regards,

Rob L.

The location confused me. At first I confused the mileposts, but now I realize that is indeed Lucin.
I don't have any memory of this exact location.  That there are two tracks must mean that it is not where the main tracks diverge, the old eastbound being the original CP and the westbound being about 1921 construction. 
The name 21 Mile Canyon did not show on my maps, but there is a 21 Ranch on Thousand Springs Creek, which crosses the SP east of Montello.
From the looks of the distant mountain this would be one of the several crossings of Thousand Springs Ck, it shows up as a semi-brainded flow on the map.
The map also shows some smallish reservoirs further up Thousand Springs Ck, that may have led the SP to assume that peak floods would be reduced.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/17 20:02 by railstiesballast.

funnelfan Wrote:
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> It was kinda silly they had just two steel
> culverts at that critical point that drains
> hundreds of square miles in NE Nevada and NW Utah.
> I'm guessing SP didn't want to maintain the
> trestle there and filled it in years ago. Building
> a bridge will set things right and avoid a repeat
> in the future.

Normal design is for a 100 year flood.  A dam break greatly exceeds that.

I always remember when consulting for the BNSF that the railroad's Civil Engineer wanted "dead cow" design for his culverts.  That meant no matter how small the drainage area, the minimum size culvert should be able to pass a dead cow if one should happen to be stuck in the culvert.

Stan Praisewater

This washout appears to be Little Goose Creek, right at Lucin and a short distance west of the start of the double track:

https://goo.gl/maps/oRTLFwzW8L82

A lot more than the dam failure at work at this location, as the Thousand Springs Creek is jointed by both the Little Goose Creek and Grouse Creeks just above these culverts, these two are the drainage for most of northeastern Nevada and northwestern Utah.  Several million acres of snowmelt and runoff passed through these culverts.  Thousand Springs Creek crosses back and forth under the railroad at least twice west of this location, I understand there are good sized washouts there as well.  Flooding from snowmelt runoff alone caused massive damage to both the railroad and highway south/west of Montello, especially up through Loray Wash.  

The 21-mile dam in question is this one:

https://goo.gl/maps/8FeJqJutVov

From what I've been hearing over the last couple days, this dam passed a recent state inspection.  In the end I expect the actual dam failure probably had only a minor impact on the overall flood damage, there was literally that much water trying to move through the system at once.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Thanks to all for the clarifications.
Originally I was mixed up on the mileposts but the original post is good, sorry for any confusion.
Yes, the "dead cow" design criteria is a wise one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/17 20:03 by railstiesballast.