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Volume 10   Number 2

February 6, 1980


Pacific Region Projects Total Some $60 Million
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Tie Injector:  Replacement of rail ties is a major part of work activity carried out each year by CP Rail. In 1979, the railway spent 191 million system-wide for construction of new track, replacement and upgrading of facilities and equipment. Of the total, $60 million was spent on the Pacific region.
Vancouver - Construction projects to reduce steep westbound grades and to improve capacity on the Calgary-Vancouver mainline highlighted the company's $60 million spending in the Pacific region during 1979.
 
Of the total, more than $37 million was spent in British Columbia.
 
Much of the first phase of the capacity improvement program has just been completed with the opening of an 11-mile section of new line between Tappen and Notch Hill, near Salmon Arm, and 4.5 miles of track just west of Revelstoke. More than $13 million was spent on the two projects last year. Total costs for the projects since 1974 exceeded $32.5 million.
 
A 5.5-mile section of new track, now under construction between Lake Louise, Alta, and Stephen, B.C. saw approximately $4.5 million spent last year. The project, expected to cost $14 million, is planned for completion this fall.
 
The second phase of the program, involving the elimination of the steepest westbound grade on the railway's transcontinental mainline - 19 miles of new track in the Beaver River valley east of Rogers Pass - is in the advanced stage of technical and economic evaluation.
 
It will likely include an 8.9-mile tunnel and is expected to cost close to $200 million.
 
In the Vancouver area, more than $7 million was spent on new construction, repair, replacement and upgrading of facilities. Major improvements to the railway's Coquitlam yard cost $4 million.
 
Work included a $300,000 expansion of the existing yard office and completion of a $2.5 million computerized car information retrieval system known as YARDS (Yard Activity Reporting and Decision System). YARDS is designed to improve efficiency of rail terminal operations.
 
Some $385,000 was spent to install floodlights and improve drainage throughout the yard.
 
An additional $1.8 million went towards construction of CP Rail's new Intermodal Services facility at the Mayfair Industrial Park in Coquitlam.
 
On Vancouver Island, CP Rail spent more than $1.7 million for various repairs to bridges, retaining walls, culverts and track.
 
Almost $500,000 was spent as the railway's share in a $1.5 million project to repair the Johnson Street Bridge in Victoria.
 
Almost $750,000 was spent during the year for various track maintenance activities on the Island, including the application of 10,000 cubic yards of ballast.
 
Projects on the railway's Canyon division, between Port Coquitlam and Kamloops and Spences Bridge and Penticton, amounted to more than $9 million.
 
Of the total, more than $4.4 million was spent for the laying of 29.2 miles of new continuous welded rail mostly near Maple Ridge, and another 1.8 miles of rail near North Bend.
 
More than 56,000 rail ties, at a cost of $1.2 million, were installed at various locations across the division. A continuing program of rock and soil stabilization along the Fraser Canyon and Thompson River saw more than $1.5 million spent during the year.
 
Bridge repair and replacement projects on the division accounted for about $1 million.
 
More than $10 million was spent on various works programs on the Revelstoke division stretching from Kamloops to Field. Major expenditures included:
  • $6.4 million for installation of new and replacement rail, including 23.3 miles of continuous welded rail between Kamloops and Pritchard;
  • $1.1 million for repair and replacement of 10 bridges and;
  • More than $1.4 million for new ballast and $1.2 million to install approximately 83,000 ties.
Work has commenced on a two-year project to extend yard trackage at Revelstoke. So far, approximately $200,000 of a total $400,000 has been spent to increase the length of holding tracks.
 
Work projects underway on the Kootenay division amounted to $3.5 million. The division trackage includes all southern B.C. lines from Crowsnest in the east to Midway in the west and from Fort Steele north to Golden.

This CP Rail News article is copyright 1980 by Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.