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- Pequest_Fill abstract "The Pequest Fill is a large railroad embankment on the Lackawanna Cut-Off in northwestern New Jersey. It was touted as the world's largest railroad fill when it was completed in 1911. The Pequest Fill is thought to have been the brainchild of Lackawanna Railroad president William Truesdale, whose railroad was financing the entire Cut-Off project. After becoming president of the Lackawanna in 1899, Truesdale set upon modernizing the railroad, particularly its 400 mile (645 km) mainline. In that regard, one of the biggest issues he faced was that of the Lackawanna Old Road, which was a 40 mile (64 km) circuitous route from Port Morris, NJ to the Delaware Water Gap. The route also had two tunnels, which only served to exacerbate the route's deficiencies. By 1905, the situation was becoming critical and Truesdale took action and sent out teams of surveyors combing northwest New Jersey for potential new routes. In the process, the surveyors came with thirteen different routes, which branched out west in slightly different trajectories, all of which Truesdale rejected. Although a perfectly straight route from Port Morris to the Delaware Water Gap would have been ideal, given the topography of the area and the cost, such a goal was unrealistic. Even so, Truesdale thought that the railroad could do better than the alternatives that had been presented to him. In the end, the sticking point was that of the Pequest Valley between Andover, NJ and Green Township, NJ. In order to maintain a more or less level grade across the valley, a fill of enormous proportions would be required. This is why all the previously-proposed routes that had ventured into the area had skirted the Pequest Valley. Legend has it that Truesdale sent his team back to the drawing board one last time to come up with a new route that crossed the Pequest Valley on a straight line rather than one that circuitously avoided it. And when the team back with its fourteenth iteration of the proposed route, Truesdale was finally satisfied. The proposed route would became what is now known as the Lackawanna Cut-Off, and the massive embankment that crosses the Pequest Valley would became known as the Pequest Fill.Planning for the new route continued through 1906 and the final survey map for the line was completed on September 1 of that year. Having the survey map ready enabled the railroad to proceed with eminent domain and the hiring of contractors. The Cut-Off project was divided amongst seven contractors for the 28.5 miles (46 km) of right-of-way. Whether by design or happenstance, the responsibility for building the Pequest Fill was divided roughly in half between two contractors: David W. Flikwir to the east and Walter H. Gahagan to the west.Construction on the Cut-Off began on August 1, 1908 and the finishing touches were not applied until late in the Autumn of 1911. The foundation for a continuous three-mile (4.8 km) section of the Cut-Off, the Pequest Fill was constructed of 6.625 million cubic yards of fill material — far more than could be provided by classic cut-and-fill construction techniques. (These require a relatively even balance between the amount of dirt and rock material that is removed from an area of the right-of-way to provide a cut through a hill and the needs of a nearby fill.) So the railroad bought 760 acres of farmland and dug it out to a depth of about 20 feet (6 m). Several of these borrow pits have filled with water over the years and have become sizeable ponds.The Pequest Fill crosses four roadways (US Route 206 and three county roads), two railroad rights-of-way (the Sussex Branch and the Lehigh & Hudson River Railway), and one river (the Pequest River). There are no overhead bridges or grade crossings. The east end of Greendell Siding continued onto the Pequest Fill for a short distance; otherwise, the railroad was two tracks wide on the fill. The Cut-Off saw rail service between 1911 (when the Lackawanna Cut-Off opened) to 1979 (when Conrail discontinued rail service). In between, the Lackawanna Railroad operated trains over the Pequest Fill for 49 years; the Erie Lackawanna Railroad for 16 years; and Conrail for three years. After discontinuing service, Conrail sought abandonment of the line and eventually removed the tracks in 1984. In 1985, the Cut-Off was sold to a land developer who proposed to use the entire Pequest Fill for the now-defunct Westway Project in New York City. That never occurred; by 2001, the entire Cut-Off had been acquired by the State of New Jersey. By 2011, NJ Transit had received approval to begin construction on relaying track between Port Morris Junction and Andover, NJ. As of 2012, work on this project continues and is slated to open for rail service in 2016. Service west of Andover, over the Pequest Fill, has not yet received any funding and, therefore, no completion date can be determined at this time.".
- Pequest_Fill thumbnail Cut-Off_Construction_-_1911.jpg?width=300.
- Pequest_Fill wikiPageID "34017685".
- Pequest_Fill wikiPageRevisionID "587250517".
- Pequest_Fill hasPhotoCollection Pequest_Fill.
- Pequest_Fill subject Category:History_of_rail_transportation_in_the_United_States.
- Pequest_Fill subject Category:Lackawanna_Cut-Off.
- Pequest_Fill point "40.979 -74.763".
- Pequest_Fill type SpatialThing.
- Pequest_Fill comment "The Pequest Fill is a large railroad embankment on the Lackawanna Cut-Off in northwestern New Jersey. It was touted as the world's largest railroad fill when it was completed in 1911. The Pequest Fill is thought to have been the brainchild of Lackawanna Railroad president William Truesdale, whose railroad was financing the entire Cut-Off project. After becoming president of the Lackawanna in 1899, Truesdale set upon modernizing the railroad, particularly its 400 mile (645 km) mainline.".
- Pequest_Fill label "Pequest Fill".
- Pequest_Fill sameAs m.0hrbpsl.
- Pequest_Fill sameAs Q7166581.
- Pequest_Fill sameAs Q7166581.
- Pequest_Fill lat "40.979".
- Pequest_Fill long "-74.763".
- Pequest_Fill wasDerivedFrom Pequest_Fill?oldid=587250517.
- Pequest_Fill depiction Cut-Off_Construction_-_1911.jpg.
- Pequest_Fill isPrimaryTopicOf Pequest_Fill.