Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-08-08
Il S7ovenly Piece of Ngors.

The most stupendous piece of stupidity
that ever emanated from the brain of q
man pretending to be an engineer is the
specification sent forth by Mr.. Sewall for
contractors to furnish their bids for the Fort
Smelling bridge piers. The specifications
have already borne their legitimate fruit in
the squabble that has occurred in the board
of commissioners in letting the work for
the understructure, and where the squabble
will end it is impossible now to predict.
Beginning with the piling, the specifca-
ton says "the piles shall be of oak, elm,
tamarac or Norway pine TIMBER This
gives contractor either the choice of select
ing one of four kinds of timber for the piles,
or of mixing his piles as best suited his adj
vantage of purchases. In any case, one
man might figure on oak and another on
tamarac the latter being the cheaper, while
the other IS the more substantial, and thus
the bidder on the tamarac would secure the
work. Again, the piles have to be "driven
until they will not penetrate more than one
inch to blow of 10000 foot-pounds for five
successive blows but the specifications fail
to state if the piles must be driven perpen-
dicularly. A pile driven slantingly will
drive with infinitely more difficulty than
one directed Observation-Disclosures resist
greater blow-and yet will altogether be
wanting as means of successful foundation.
The specification for the masonry is the
silmmest affair on record. It fails to desig-
nate the thickness of the stone in the
courses, and contractor, if he so desired,
could build the whole of rubble, especially as
the term "header'' never once appears
in the document The grave defect in the
specification of not denominating the thick
ness of the stone to be used leaves the con-
tractor at liberty to use whatever quality
and thickness of stone he can procure the
cheapest. It was understood that the stone
to be used in the abutments was to be OBJ
tanned from the quraries belonging to Bishop
Grace, but that is omitted in the specifca-
lions, and it becomes question if that very
omission is not the "nigger in the fence.''
1t is a curious circumstance also that,
while the dimensions and quality of the
stone to be placed in the abutments are
studiously omitted, the nature of the mortar
is as studlously inserted and that is left to
the test and approval of the engineer. Con
sidering former little investigation as to
cement used in city contracts, in which
the engineer figured somewhat unfortunately,
it would seem as il. he was the last man to
test and approve any mortar.
linen the engineer is empowered to stop
the work whenever he may deem fit. On that
matter, he is constituted the grand high mogul
of the whole business, and is monarch of all
he surveys, making the commission to moth
ingness. The evil of this provision of the
specification consists in the erection of an
absolute one-man power. The contractor
and the engineer may disagree as to when
the work shall stop, or as to when it shall
proceed, and between the two big sized
lawsuit may result, but the contractor in any
event cannot be held responsible for delays
in the completion of the work or any imper-
fections in construction, for that Individual
can fall back upou the original specifications,
which are and must be an essential pare of
the contract.