New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-13

il il Is inches thick. ond always use thi' "un'o'
one Of the factors in ascertaining the noinoer .,
cubic yards which It contains But none Oh inc wan
on the Jordan Level il IL inches thick, nor il thcfo
mrcb - Il that will averarp I2 inches In thickness
The part near Memphis is, on the whoio' hoa',o'
tho, that near Jordan and, without having actuahy
,,.asnred H. am positive that there are greie
many chains of il that is not more thah vi
inches thick don't mean to say That THIS "iii 4"
LIGHTER than slope-wals are on other parts oi 'ho
Eric Canal which have examined. There are some
SECTIONS of il which arc very poor and when the
Fncineers said would have to be taken down, ana
half Of IL is no better than that which 1 saw AT
Utica. a week ago, laid by Denison, and which the
engineer had condemned. The truth is, and it IL
confirmed by the combined testimony OF engineers
contractors, and citizens, US well as by my own
observation that there is slope-wa on the canal
that hos been laid within tho past 10 years in &C
corance with the specifications and very little since
the canals were first built. think the old walls
generally were thicker and heavier than those laid
nowadays with material, but even those, where
have seen workmen taking them out, have rarely
averaged foot in thickness.
There is reason why slope walls laid now are
naturally lighter and thinner than formerly. They
are constructed of powders which picked up III
the fields When the canals were first built tho con-
tractors in many places used all the larger stones
that were to be found on the farms immediately an
acent To the canals so that contractors OF to-day
arc Obliged either to use the smaller stones which
were formerly rejected go long distances after
Others | shall not undertake to say whether wall
that is from to II inches thick is "a proper one to
protect the banks of the canal. merely report the
fact that such the character of the wall now beng
laid ON the Jordan Level and elsewhere, and that
neither the contractors the engineers Will assert
that it even approaches the literal requirements Oh
the section specifications Some OF 1t, know, Is hot
constructed of proper materials, and, as lho on
gineers said, will have to be rebuilt whether the
section specifications ought to be modified or the
contractors required to live up to their very letter ~
a question which | shall not discuss. saw only a
little vertical wall on the Jordan Level but what
did see, though not entirely composed OF such ma
terial as the section specifications require, was SID
stantially built and free from of the most serious
defects which noticed in the walls examined Ill
Bntfalo-the use of small irregular stones on the top
where they will be easily brushed OIL The Work on
this contract will not DO completed this year, MOI
will ground be broken on about mile or a mile ana
a-half at the eastern end of it. u. l." W.
THE GENESEE VALLEY CONTRACT.
HOW T. W. WILLIAMS EXECUTED A CONTRACT
SPECIFICATIONS THAT WERE NOT FOLLOWED
our-REPAIRs THAT MUST SOON BE MADE
A STRANGE RELIEF MEASURE.
IrRON STAFF CORRESPONDENT or THE TRIBUSHI
Rochester, April 1O-On the Sth of October, 1869
Edward w. williams onterod into contract " for
completing widening and deepening and IN
proving the Genesse Valley Canal from the south
ond of the gnard lock at the Rapids to the junction
with the Erie Canal at Rochester" He agreed to
do tho bailing and draining necessary III order 10
expose the rock which was TO be excavated LOT
$1,000 How much it cost him l don't know, but
the Tweed Legislature of 1870 voted him $4,000
extra compensation for this part OF the work. Inc
original contract price for the whole job vas pol, l2o
the amount paid was SIS, 9l3. The section of canal
covered by this contract is about mile ana three
fourths in length / visited it yesterday afternoon
and walked twice over the entire distance, making
careful notes, not so much for the purpose
of discovering whether the work paid for
had actually been done, of critclslng It's
character by a comparison of it with the
requirements of the section specifications, as 10
observe its present condition, and thus to ascertain
whether it was dHrabo was likely soon to require
expensive repairs. An investigation OF this knd
seemed 10 Inc desirable, because some OF tho con-
tractors who have been called to account for falling
10 perform their work in strict accordance with the
letter of the section specifications have replied that
such literal compliance is impossible that it never
has been expected and that if it had been required
Of the contractors it would only have resulted in
their ruin while the work would have been Of no
more value to the State than that which has been
done.
At the point where this contract began-the south
end of the guard lock at the Raplds-the Gencsee
Valley Canal is protected from the river by high
embellishments q portion of which is covered with
loose stone OF rip-raps. / find that the State has
maid for 27lOGi cubic yards of loose stone at 81,
and OS7S6 cubic yards of loose stone and brush at
So the amount Of each of these items having been
increased to fOurfOld the amount bid for. saw no
other place where either loose stone or loose stone
and brush had apparently been used, either TO pro-
feet the bank of the canal or the back of wall and
the rip-raps even if Williams put them there land
| don't know that he did, contain no such amount
Of loose stone as has been estimated and PAID
for | do not say that these materials were not
furnished, but that l unable TO find them,
although | looked for them very carefully. From
the guard lock and the Rapids for about seven
eghths of a mile to point near Plymouth-aye, III
Rochester tho interior slope of the banks OF the
canal are protected by no wall of any kind except
that few rods of vertical wall have been built III
one or two places where the bernie bank il Occn-
pied by manufacturing establishments. saw
nothing worthy of remark on this part of Willams's
work except that the banks in some places
looked to mo rather sleeper than they should have
been, but / found no signs of the earth caving or
sliding The first vertical walls that have been
built are inst above pymouth-ayo., and at several
places both above and below this street small sec
lions Of them have this Spring fallen into the
canal Vertical walls built in accordance with the
section specifications ought to last, under ordinary
circumstances 30 years, but here found 1t tuul-
bling down within four five years after its COM
pleton, thus completely refutng the claim of the
contractors that the work they do is just durable