Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1902 — MARVELOUS FEAT OF “FILLING” BY THE “Q." [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MARVELOUS FEAT OF “FILLING” BY THE “Q."

The greatest prairie land “filling” known to railroads in thh West is under way on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad at a point known as “Sugar Creek,” near Ottumwa, lowa. A valley seventy-one feet deep, between the crests of two hills 2,600 feet apart, is being filled up. The work will require ”28,000 cubic yards of grading and will not be finished for a year, although begun in June last. At the top of one of the hills three 'Steam shovels dump clay in ihe cars, which a .dummy engine pushes out upon, the high, portable iron bridge, where they deposit their loads into the valley. With one end supported upon the hill and the other upon trestle work the bridge is moved along as the work advances. When the grading is completed it will be 275 feet wide at the base. To provide for the spring flood waters which rush along “Sugar Creek” two thirty-five-foot arches have been constructed. One hundred and fifty men were employed iu their construction. Besides the stone the arch work contains 600,000 bricks.