Union Pacific Rails to Trails

Shoshone, Benewah and Kootenai Counties, Idaho

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Union Pacific Railroad converted 72.5 miles of abandoned railroad from Mullan to Plummer, Idaho into a scenic bicycle and pedestrian trail. The project scope included environmental remediation of the railroad right-of-way, bridge replacement and repair, flood damage and repair together with trail and trail head construction.

Welch Comer provided professional surveying services to assist in the design and construction of the trail.

Welch Comer was responsible to perform boundary and right-of-way surveying for the project. GPS was utilized to establish project control and reference of the existing track location to NGS Harn Stations, and other established vertical and horizontal control points. Other conventional survey methods served well in performing topographic construction and volumetric surveys.

KEY ELEMENTS

  • GPS control survey
  • Vertical control surveys
  • Topographic surveys
  • Bridge surveys
  • Construction and volumetric surveys

GPS surveying of the existing rails.

Conventional surveying was used where GPS signals could not be made.