OCR

The line serves seven stations, which are open to public service and connected by a telephone line which runs alongside the track: Mont Belo at Kilometer Point O Dihesse at Kilometer Point 46 Makabana at Kilometer Point 83 Mabafi at Kilometer Point 125 Mossendjo at Kilometer Point 172 Tsiguindi at Kilometer Point 240 Mt. Binda at Kilometer Point 2 85 The preliminary plan, prepared by "OLTAMS" (a group made up of the study bureaus of Omnium Lyonnais and Tippets Abbet McCarthy-Stratton) forecast the volume of excavations at 6, 700, 000 cubic meters. Actually, by reason of the terrific difficulties encountered in installation of the culverts, and landslides due to floods, the volume realized was 11,400,000 cubic meters, or 70% higher than the volume originally contemplated. In spite of this, the period of 36 months forecast for the construction of the railroad was only slightly exceeded, since construction of the line - started on May 1, 1959 - was completed in July 1962, or 39 months after commencement of the work. reforestation and Erection of Structures The deforestation work which had to be done over a width of from 3 7 to 90 meters all along the route was extremely difficult in certain places on account of having to traverse marshy areas in which the machines could work only under extreme difficulty, or because of very broken terrain where the cross slopes were as high as 75%. Although the preparation of the railroad did not call for the erection of spectacular structures, nevertheless it necessitated the construction of a considerable number of bridges and small structures. Some of these are worth mentioning, in particular the steel span bridges over the: Niari 110 mts . long - two spans of 80 and 30 mts . , respectively. South Louesse 175 mts. long - four spans of 35, 80, 30 and 30 mts. , respectively. North Louesse 80 mts. long - one span. Legala 40 mts. long - one span.