14 REPORT BOARD DIRECTORS PANAMA RAILROAD: COMPANY.

is 20 by 440 feet, built of concrete blocks. The train shed is 20 by 720
feet, of steel and galvanized iron, and the inclosed concrete platform
is 1,140 feet long. The station is about 90 per cent complete.

In August borings were begun on the site of proposed dock 12, to
determine the character of foundations. The result of the investiga-
tion indicates that it is entirely feasible to construct a dock along
_ permanent lines, and preliminary plans have been drawn, under
which bids will be asked for the construction of the substructure.
In the meantime, work has begun on necessary filling for construction
of tracks to serve the dock.

The necessity for additional quarters for white employees in Colon
led to very heavy expenditures during the year for the construction
of new quarters, and for the repair and remodeling of old buildings.
Including those incomplete at the close of the last fiscal year, there
were 36 A.l’.E’s. issued to cover this work.

Twenty-nine thousand five hundred and ninety-one cubic yards of
sand were loaded at Panama beach, and used for locomotives and
miscellaneous construction work, by both the Panama Railroad and
Isthmian Canal Commission. Highty-six thousand four hundred and
seven cubic yards of gravel were loaded at Gorgona and used for
making concrete on the relocated line and in ballasting the old line.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE RELOCATED LINE.

At the beginning of the fiscal year, the final location had not been
definitely decided upon—a distance of 20 miles between Gatun and
San Pablo. The first location made in this section skirted along the
east border of Gatun Lake, following around the west end of several
ridges that are in general direction perpendicular to the line. It had
been decided to abandon the old crossing of the Gatun Valley,
between Gatun and Tiger Hill, if a line could be found that would
give a better bottom for building the necessary high embankments
and at the same time not introduce too much distance and curvature.
Surveys were made along the Bohio, Agua Salud, and Baldo Espino
Ridges, referred to above, seeking low saddles through which a loca-
tion could be made. Such saddles were found and the location made
was approved early in June. The Gatun River crossing on this
approved location is about 4 miles upstream from the first location.
The operated line can later be shortened 5 miles by building a 4-mile
freight cut-off from Mount Hope to a point on the Gatun Ridge,
about 4 miles east of Gatun, and by so doing, eliminating the pusher
grade (1.25 per cent) from Mindi to Gatun. The extra expense of
handling two freight trains each way per day, if capitalized, would —
pay for building the suggested cut-off line. Except this pusher grade,
the maximum grade, both northward and southward, on the new line
will be 0.45 per cent compensated for. curvature at the rate of 0.04
per cent per degree. : : |

The completed line as being constructed will be 46.2 miles long,
1 mile shorter than the present line. The maximum curvature will
be 6°; there will be six of such curves. |

The main divisions of the construction work during the year have |
been as follows: ) 2

1. Work in vicinity of Gatun.

2. Grading in vicinity of Gatun River crossing.