Omaha daily bee., 1883-06-25
Asphalt Pavement.
OMAHv, June %, 1885

oMAHN, une ID, 1000.
To the Editor OF THE BEE.
DEAR SIR.-In reply to some criticisms
on asphalt pavements, lately made bv an
other paper in this city, | desire to state
the following facts:
1. Over six hundred thousand square
yards of the Trinidad sheetasphalt pave
ment in use for from one to- ten years in
the cities of Boston, New York, Phila-
delphia, Washington, Buffalo, Erie and
elsewhere, prove most conclusively that
the fear you express, thatthe marks which
appear during a few hot days in Summer
on the sides of streets freshly laid with
asphalt, is groundless and that they will
all disappear in a short time. 1t is no
new thing for non-experts to be alarmed
at this characteristic. Time will prove
to you as it has proven to others, that
these marks are temporary blemishes
only. Proof of this is found in the fact
you state that these marks are not visible
the center of the pavement is exactly
like the sides i'll every respect, as far as
its composition is concerned. A little
traffic will leave marks in either place,
these will disappear as the traffic increases.
and thus the pavement is constantly i'm
proving for years.
2. AS to bonding for five years or more
we are ready to bond for any length of
time. You simply pay your money and
take your choice.
For ten years our price is $3.50 per
square yard. If you will pay us what
stone pavement will cost in Omaha, laid
with first-class material, in tirst-class
manner on a concrete base like ours,
land the peculiar soil of Omaha will per-
nit of no first-class work without such n
base), we will guarantee our pavement
for fifty years.
3. AS to absolute perfection in a pave
ment / do not expect to find it until !
travel the golden streets of the New
Jerusalem, where all good paving men go.
Meanwhile i maintain that for earthly
use, no other pavement can compare
with the smooth sheet asphalt properly
laid on q solid concrete base, and for the
following reasons:
/. 1t is a sanitary pavement, it has no
joints into which offensive matter can
settle, to return in n~oxious vapors that
produce sickness. 1t promotes the health
of the city.
2. 1t is a noiseless pavement. 1t pro-
notes the comfort alike of people driving
over it and of people III the shops, stores
and offices where it is laid. Sick people
and invalids can ride over it when they
cannot ride over stone pavements.
3. 1t is IN economical pavement rs re-
CARDS the traffic over it, i. O., the saving
in wear and tear of vehicles is of meal
culable advantage. The amount so saved
annually would make an income sufficient
to pay the interest on the cost of pave
ments in any city, and create a sinking
fund to redeem the principal. In view
of this fact it would be wiser to pay ever
more for this pavement Than stone would
cost, for that difference has to be paid
but once, while the difference in wear
and tear of vehicles is a perpetually re-
peated one.
4. 1t is the cheapest pavement as re-
CARDS motive power. Two horses will,
on it, do as much work by hauling as
heavy loads as five horses will do on stone
blocks, if well laid, or seven if poorly
laid. Rudolph Herring, president of the
Engineers club, of Philadelphia, is auth
GRITTY for this statement
To sum up, in view of all these facts,
and in view, also, of the fact that the
available money to be spent in Omaha for
paving will go further and afford a larger
number of streets the advantage of Il
good pavement if expended in laying
sheet asphalt on n concrete foundation
than if spent in laying any stone pay
ment, it would seem that there is no
room for reasonable people to hest
tate. As regards Harvey and Farnam
streets they form no exceptions. The
sheet pavement stands in Court street,
Boston, where all the express wagons re-
ceive and deliver their loads; it is in
Kirby street in the same city; it is on
Sixth street, Philadelphia, between Chest
nut and Walnut, and on Broad street
north of Columbia road.
Everybody knows of it being on Penn
s~ylvania avenue, Washington, the princi,
pal business street of two hundred thous-
and people. In all these places it has
proven successful after one to ten years
use. Gen. M. G.. Meigs recommended it
for all the streets in Philadelphia. We