Daily globe., 1878-04-21

little more complaint of holes caused bv |
rotten blocks, at least upon recently laid
payenents.
It seems pretty well settled that pine or
hemlock will last from seven to eight years,
without much damage from decay alone. and
in locations where it will inevitably wear out
in less than that time, it seems unnecessary
to substitute cedar, a softer and more brittle
wood. The latter may be excellent on lightly
travelled streets, and, perhaps, would do good
service for fifteen years in such locations.
l regard the discontinuance of the use of
the tar, as the worst omission of all. Much
paving has been laid in Chicago without
any tar. and with a top dressing of two or
three inches of gravel, much mixed with
sand and loan, which, being swept off with
the first street cleaning, left the blocks bare
and unprotected, to be softened by the rain
and battered by the wheels. OF the other
features of the Nicholson plan, the sand is
necessary to bring the road bed to exact
shape, and correct minor defects of grading.
The planking, which has been for some
years generally discontinued, is essential, to
give uniform bearing to the blocks, and.
if it is true, as objected by some, that one
inch boards cannot support a pavement over
hole. still less could the blocks be sup
ported in such a.place without any boards,
the fact being that the hole ought not to be
there, but the boards should be supported at
every point, and only needed to bridge over
such small and unavoidable defects as might
cause the settling of a single block. The
City Council has just passed an ordinance
! requiring that all the wooden paving here
1o1l l.c1.,l1 Ior,o A.
to three inches in thickness
The strips between the blocks are not of
much importance the blocks can easily be
kept apart till the gravel is put in. The
! only real use Of the strips is to prevent the
! gravel from working under the bottom of
any loose block, and raising it above the
rest of the paving.
| It has been claimed that the business por-
ton of the city should be paved with stone,
| leaving the wood to the residence streets. In
my estimation the valuable business prop
erty, on the busiest street is the best able to
| afford, and appreciate the luxury of this
style of pavement. think no one will deny
that the Nicholson, at the best, is the most
agreeable, and for those travelling upon it,
the most economical ever invented, not ex-
cepting the famous asphalt. The question
then is, how long can it be kept at it's best,
or so nearly SO as not to appreciably differ
| from it?
believe that by being properly laid and
reasonably repaired, it will be better for five
years than stone pavement ever is, on our
most heavily travelled street.
The present cost of paving with six inch
blocks, one inch board flooring, and top
dressing of tar and gravel is about $1.25 per
square yard.
\
The Nicholson pavement is cheap and of
| perishable materials, and too much has been
expected of it. 1t should be promptly re-
placed in advance of its total decay.
The general practice heretofore has been
to lay it carelessly, neglect it entirely, use it
and abuse it for that time for it's badness,
forgetting the good service it did during the
first five or six years, and finally take it uD
and put down another of the same kind.
It is certainly reasonable to anticipate
that, with the more settled condition of the
streets, and with the reaction which already
seems to be taking place from the careless
and slOyenly modes of construction and
neglect from which it has suffered, that we
may yet enjoy the smooth, elastic and noise
less presence Of our old FRIEND the NICHOLSON
pavement.
WHAT TIE MILWAUKEE COMMITTEE RECON-
MEND.
We now state our conclusions and recon-
mendations concisely and without discus
sion.
We think the condition of the paved
streets in this city does not greatly differ
from that Of other cities where the wooi
pavement has been almost exclusively
used.
The extreme cheapness of the materia
here has apparently led to disregard of The
i expense of frequent renewals and repairs.
The necessary annual outlay for repairs O
wooden pavement is seldom thought of b,
those who find fault with it's condition in tn,
streets.
J The life of the common wood pavemen
! does not usually exceed seven or eight years
The annual expense for renewals and re
pairs must therefore in that time equal tn
original cost of the whole pavement.
It will readily be seen that this city will
sixteen miles of wooden pavement now lais
must annually renew or entirely relay owe
= two miles Of the pavement, and continue tt
: keep doing SO every year, without addin!
! any length to its paved streets, or material,
: improving their condition.
= When this city has, as Buffalo and Chica
:, : go now have, one hundred miles Of pave,
: streets: if these payements are of wood, thei
;, entire renewal will be required every seve
: or eight years, which will amount to layin
twelve or fourteen miles of new pavemen
, annually to keep the streets in ordinary re
/ pair.
g If the average width of the paved street
e between curbs is forty-fve feet, and the COS
: of repaving with the cheapest kind of woot
en- pavement, sixty-two cents per squal
% yard, the cost would be sixteen thousan
is five hundred dollars per mile. This make
the average annual expenditure on the pre-
,e ent length of wooden pavements in the Gil
!. about thirty-three thousand dollars, to kee
;, them renewed and in good condition.
10 With one hundred miles of such pave
+ streets this annual expenditure would reae
id about two hundred thausand dollars at Il
70 present prices of lumber.
or The principal faults of the payements
j. now laid here, we think are in their fou,