Staying on track: engineering continues on Ring of Fire railroad study.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: MINING

Despite the frenzy of exploration drilling and company acquistions in the Ring of Fire, engineering work continues for a proposed chromite ore haul railroad into the James Bay lowlands.

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Krech Ojard & Associates is preparing a rail feasibility study for the construction of a 350-kilometre-long railroad from McFaulds Lake, south to Exton in northwestern Ontario.

The preferred route would largely follow glacial eskers that start south of the Albany River. These gravel rises make for ideal track bed in an otherwise swampy landscape.

Nels Ojard, special projects manager at Krech Ojard, said the majority of work this past summer was focused on the geotechnical program.

Soil samples that were collected along the length of the route last winter and spring were being processed and evaluated to test their ability to support heavy bridge loads and frost susceptability.

Extra attention was paid to areas of possible bridge locations where there were specialized borings right down to rock and hard soil.

"They need to carry a heavier load than a typical portion of the railroad."

More than 750 auger drill samples were collected on the claims along the transportation corridor leading up to the Big Daddy chromite deposit.

Golder & Associates, Krech Ojard's geotechnical consultants, are putting together their own individual reports and recommendations of different segments of the route, which will be fed into the overall engineering report.

All the technical details--identifying possible bridge locations, track configurations and various site characteristics along the route--could be ready as-early as November.

All the documents will be supported with detailed mapping from two LIDAR (light detection and ranging) surveys flown over the Ring of Fire and the corridor.

The study will be presented to their client, Canada Chrome, a subsidiary of KWG Resources.

There are 90 water crossings along the route, ranging from major rivers to small streams that can be easily bridged with culverts. Some hydrology data will be included.

"All of...