Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/425

 On the Des Chutes Railroad there has been constructed 100 miles of grade and track. There has been expended to date $2,200,000, and it is hoped to have this line in operation a distance of 120 miles by March, 1911.

In the way of betterments, the O. R. & N. will soon let the contract for the new steel double-deck bridge crossing the Willamette river in Portland, the structure to cost $1,350,000. In other betterments, 17 miles of new passing tracks are being installed between Umatilla and Baker City at accost of $310,000, including automatic block signals; a line change between The Dalles and the Des Chutes river has been authorized and the contract let, the change covering 14 miles at an estimated cost of $600,000; no miles of the Oregon division will be relaid with 90-pound steel at a cost of $1,100,000, and the track from Albina to St. Johns has been relaid with new 75-pound steel at a cost of $45,000; together with a tunnel two miles in length under the city from the Willamette river to Columbia slough.

The construction and betterments on the Southern Pacific authorized and under way will cost, approximately, $5,000,000. The most notable feature of the work is the construction of a portion of the Natron-Klamath Falls line. Of the total length of 152 miles now under construction; work is progressing northward from Klamath Falls and eastwardly from Eugene.

As a part of the Harriman system is the Pacific Railway & Navigation Company now building from Hillsboro to Tillamook, a distance of 98 miles. The construction work is about 65 per cent completed, and the total cost of the road will be about $3,000,000.

The new railroad extends from Hillsboro, twenty miles west of Portland on the west side division of the Southern Pacific, to Tillamook. While the distance on an air line from Hillsboro to Tillamook is about fifty miles, the railroad takes a long detour to reach that point, running northwesterly in a divide in the Coast Range between the upper Nehalem and Salmon Berry rivers; thence following the Salmon Berry to its confluence with the Nehalem and down the Nehalem to Nehalem bay; thence along the south shore of the Nehalem bay to the ocean beach, following the beach southerly to Garibaldi Point and thence along the east shore of Tillamook bay to Bay City and Tillamook.

The Oregon Trunk Line, which parallels the Des Chutes road in the Des Chutes River canyon, is under construction from Celilo to Madras, a distance of a little more than 100 miles. The construction is of standard character. Based on the estimates given for the Des Chutes Railroad, the cost of construction from Celilo to Madras should be not less than $5,000,000.

To this will be added the cost of bridging the Columbia river below Celilo. The Oregon Trunk Line is nearly completed to Crooked river. With the completion of the road to Madras which is promised by James J. Hill by February, 1911, work will be pressed southward, and by the close of 191 1 probably at least 100 more miles of railroad will be under construction.

The Pacific & Eastern Railroad, the successor to the old Medford and Crater Lake line, is now pushing out from Eagle Point to Butte Falls, a distance of 35 miles. It has been reported that the road has been acquired by