Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1861-07-17
F"om the Springfield Republican
StOppaRe of the Troy and Greenfield Rail.


The contractors Of the Troy and Greenfield
Railroad have suddenly suspended all work
upon it, including the tunnel, because of new
and unexpected decisions in regard to the pays
ment of the state loan by the new state engin-
eer The case is as follows The loan act of
1860, while allowing specific sums from the
state for each thousand feet Of progress on the
tunnel, provided the round sum OF $3.50 900
for the completion of TIE road from Greenfield
through Shelburne Falls and Charlemont to
the mouth of the tunnel, a distance of twenty.
five miles. This sum was to be advanced in
proportion as the work OF execution progress.
ed, under the direction of the state engineer.
That official (Col. Lincon) made an estimate
of the whole work to be done and established
a scale of allowances or advances for its sew.
eral features, 50 adjusted that when the road
should be complete the whole amount should
have been paid over to the contractors. Upon
this basis, in which safety to the state and lib.
erality to the enterprise were equally kept in
view, the contractors Sub-et the work, and it
was more rapidly pushed forward than ever
before. Col Lincoln's successor, Mr.. Steven
son, continued his policy, and S450,000 OF the
$500 900 has been advanced to the contractors,
and the road from Greenfield to the tunnel is
nearly finished. The grading would have been
complete before the first OF September; the
rails and ties were all procured, and the track
would have been laid, and cars running, the
whole distance, before the lst OF December
But about a month ago there was change
in the engineer, Gov Andrew superseding
Mr.. Stevenson by w. S. Whitwell of Boston,
and the latter having adopted new policy,
has brought the road to sudden termina-
ton. He not only insists, we unders tand,
that the work remaining undone shall be fin
ished in a higher and more expensive style
than has heretofore been demanded, but that
the past work shall be brought up to the
same standard. He demands, for instance,
that the slope of the excavations shall be one
and half to one (instead of one to one, as they
are, though this is greater than the natural
slope OF the hills through which they are
made: and that the temporary trussle work
over ravines shall be filled up before the road
is accepted by the state. BY this ad.
vance of the standard of the work from
the start, and a REIMBURSEMENT Of the
allowances for it, he makes a difference of
nearly one hundred thousand dollars with the
results of the previous system, and withhods
that amount from the contractors, which they
claim that they are entitled to. In this state
of the case, the latter say that they cannot 90
on without bringing greater ruin upon them.
selves and their associates than is involved in
stopping altogether; and they suspend tile
work upon the tunnel, also, because, out of
the allowances for that, the state would first
take the interest on all the payments hereto
fore made, and this would not leave enough to
carry on the operations advantageously. Be-
sides. they prefer, we suppose, to make an
appeal from the decisions of the state engineer
from the safer and stronger position for them
OF an entire than partial suspension.