New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-02

For q considerable distance the wall benches have
been removed. and apparently the last work that
Denison has done the construction of new slope
wall. found the place where he seems to have
stopped work, the wall being one-half or two-thrds
of the way up. and found there the most striking
evidence of the dishonest manner in which this man
is doing his work. 1t will be remembered that no
slope wall was included in Denisons bid but that,
at the date of the last report, he had built,
pretended to have built, .4s7 cubic yards as extra
work" The price of this was fixed by private ar
rangement with the canal authorities at 81 yard,
while from 81 80 to 81 20 ought to pay for the very
best class of work
The specifications require that slope wall shall be
at least Is inches thick and that it shall be built of
good stone, Of which shall fail to extend into
the wall from its face at least foot and it ought to
be backed with from 6 to Q inches of good gravel
lining. The slope wall that Denison is building
there is not more than q foot thick, and in some
places, think it was even thinner than that, and
very few of the stones used would measure foot in
their longest way, while great numbers Of stones
were put in that were only inches in diameter or
less. met an Irishman this point, and asked
him how long since work had been stopped on that
wall he said that no work had been done since
December. In reply to further questions he said
that he had heard that there was q
between the contractor and the engineer
which caused the work to stop, and
my return TO the city ascertalned that the engi-
neer had condemned this work and that; and al
though the contractor had attempted to cause his
removal he had thus far been unsuccessful. l saw
considerable quantity of stone piled up on the
bank of the canal apparently to be used in coDtn-
ung this slope wall The heaps were built as they
usually are. with the large stones the outside
md he in fha mi l ShOud
that from oDetbird to onehaf of these stones were
too small for the wall that is, that they would
measure less than foot their largest diameter
learned from my Irish friend that these stones
bad all been carted there since work on the wall
stopped, and he showed me some smaller piles scat
tered along the edge of the bank nearest the canal
which he said they were putting in when work was
suspended These were almost all small. hardly
in twenty Of them being of the required size
Whether the contractor was putting in any lining
of gravel OF not I cannot say but the wall looked
to me as though it laid directly upon the earth
of which the bank is composed. My examination
of this work only such as any taxpayer, unas-
sisted might make and my conclusion is that the
work is all of 1t shabby done without the least re-
gard for the specifications and that if the contrac-
tors bond is good for anything, he ought to be
made to do the greater portion of the work again or
be sued on mis- bond.
On my way back l examined some other work
along the canal doqe before this Denison contract
was let. The vertical wall, taken as whole, was
better than Denison's, although a great amount of
inferior material had been used and the wall was
breaking down in some places. while pieces had
fallen out of it in others. AS far as my limited OBJ
servaton goes the contractors correct in saying
that the work has never been done according TO
specification although do not believe that 1t is
impossible to live up to the specifications. as they
say it is. l also examined the masonry in several
bridges / have not before the specifications for
masonry of this kind but they require that 1t shall
be built on proper foundation. that good stone
shall be used, and that the bond or lap OF the stone
shall be at least nine inches. In several cases the
foundations must be faulty, as one portion of the
masonry has settled, causing wide cracks to extend
through it, | saw repeated instances where the
bond was less than nine inches and in one or two
cases large stone apparently falling down for
want of anything to support it, On the whole, the
bridge work Is better than the wall, but much of
this might also be improved z. l.. W.