USA: Freight and passenger traffic began flowing along Union Pacific's main line through Oregon on May 6 after basic repairs were completed to three sections of track wiped out by a massive mudslide near Oakridge in the Cascade mountains.
Fine silt obliterated 915 m of right-of-way in difficult terrain on January 19, bringing with it hundreds of trees, rocks and other debris. About one million tonnes of material was removed by 200 workers and up to 30 daily trains.
'This was an extraordinary event which required an extraordinary effort,' said Bill Van Trump, UP's Assistant Vice-President of Engineering & Maintenance. 'Not only did we put a mountain back together, we were also able to do it safely, without any injuries.'
