Not far north of here, at Judson's Hook in Stockport, there is a similar rock face, which a reader knowledgeable about geology says has the same exfoliating, dense shale and an identical fault. There a simple wire fence, kept under constant tension by a mechanical device with springs, is being used to stop the rock from falling onto the tracks.
The day isn't over yet. There is still time to suggest it in comments to the Department of Transportation and the Department of State. Here are the email addresses of the contacts in each agency:
Department of Transportation: mark.jakubiak@dot.ny.gov
Department of State: matthew.maraglio@dos.ny.govCOPYRIGHT 2017 CAROLE OSTERINK
The photos show the cliff known as Judson's Hook, three-quarters of a mile upriver from the Stockport Creek railroad bridge (the bridge sits at the end of the Station Road along the river).
ReplyDeleteIt's an equally steep slope to Hudson's Promenade, and sheds the same dense shale onto the tracks below. Both sites have very ancient geological fault running through them.
At the base of Judson's Hook, the cliff face is closer to the tracks than the cliff in Hudson, and for a long distance (sometimes as close as two-and-a-half feet).
When larger rocks fall, they're removed manually, then placed on the far side of the tracks.
As seen in the photos, the solution reached years ago by CSX for the same problem at Judson's Hook is both non-invasive and super low-tech.
ReplyDeleteIt does, however, require workers to remove fallen rocks trapped behind the fence, a maintenance nuisance which Amtrak may wish to vanquish with a one-time application of Shotcrete.
At the time of the presentation at City Hall, on September 26, I hadn't been to the base of the Stockport cliff for years. It wasn't until days after the meeting that I vaguely recalled some sort of mesh used there.
Even so, when I mentioned Judson's Hook, more than one of the presenters acted all surprised, like they'd never before considered the similarity between the two circumstances.
I added this observation to the public comments, with the innuendo that the public had been played. Unless the presenters' dubious surprise gave the reason why this alternative wasn't discussed, then we may well have been.
These fences are also called slide fences. There is one in Germantown just south of where Anchorage Rd crosses the tracks, diagonally across from Lasher Park. In addition to preventing rockfall from blocking the tracks, they automatically notify Amtrak that rockfall has occurred.
ReplyDeleteI have submitted comments to both DOS and DOT asking why slide fences have not been considered.
The first written hint of this project is the 2009 DOT application to the FRA: https://www.dot.ny.gov/recovery/repository/NY_ES-04_FRA_application.pdf In that document they discuss slide fences, and seek funding to improve and upgrade them. -kaare christian
Wow, thank you for this!
DeleteYOU'RE AWESOME!!
"Slide fences." I wish I'd known.
Here are two shots of the slide fence just south of Anchorage Rd grade crossing.
ReplyDeleteThe rockfall detection device, which automatically lowers speed on the track segment:
https://flic.kr/p/YYPt2s
A view of the Anchorage Rd. cliffs rockfall fence:
https://flic.kr/p/Cguf45
I was lucky, train was posing for me as it went by.
Both photos for public use. -kaare christian
Ah! Now I see how it works!
DeleteIt would have been so helpful to know this earlier.
Of course the presenters on 9/26 had to be aware of this alternative, but they never mentioned it. They were busy selling something else, and then acted surprised when I mentioned Judson's Hook (though without also mentioning its slide fence).