Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-03-09
YANkToN's SIDEWALKS.


-
Eight Miles of Plank Laid to q Cost o
$4,000, Maintained Mt an Annua
Expense of 81 ,6O0-Somethins Nor,
Durable Wanted.
The sidewalk problem is one of seri
GUS Importance IN Yankton. Thus fal
we have built almost exclusively O.
wood and the delay of this materia.
renders it a luxury far to expensive fol
general public. use, though wood is thus
far the only available material. This i.
subject which Ed Palmer. city en-.
gineer, has made a study during the
past year, with q view to the
discovery of sidewalk material
of better staying qualities than
pine plank and which in the end will
prove an economical investment to our
people. His Investigations have been
ample and his correspondence volnmin-
GUS and out OF it oil he has gathered
valuable information which he will in
due time submit to the proper authori-
ties. He has given to the Press and
Dakotaian some of the results OF his la
bors in connection with this subject.
He finds by measurement that Yank-
ton contains about eight miles of plank
sidewalk. About eighteen hundred feet
is ten feet wide, five thousand feet twelve
feet wide and the balance
four and six feet wide. This walk was
built at the average cost of sixty.fve
cents per linear foot, and the entire i'm
provement, in round numbers, cost the
people of Yankton about $4,000. These
plank walks, Mr.. Palmer finds from the
experiences of the past, will waste away
at the rate of $1,000 worth each year.
Besides the sidewalks there are now
in existence ninety.six plank street
crossings, costing an average of $32
each, or a total Of $3,072, and thirty-ene
alley crossings, costing an average each
of Sc, or a total of $1S6. To maintain
existing crossings costs over a thousand
dollars per year. The footings show a
pcEludu6uG lut6SuuuGuL Ol--
In plank sidewalks $M, 0GC
In plank street crossings ..-........ 3,072
In plank alley crossings ......... lS6
Total $27 ,258
The annual expenses of maintaining
these improvements is $500. 1t is to
be further considered in this connection
that there is a constant demand for the
extension OF the sidewalk system. If
this demand was fully compiled with
the value of Yankton's sidewalk and
crosswalk property would be doubled
before the end of the coming summer
And it Is probable that instead of di-
minishing, the demand for expenditure
IN this direction will increase, 30 the
cost of maintaining what we now possess
is not the most serious consideration.
It is to a solution OF this problem that
Engineer Palmer has devoted his efforts.
He has correspondent industriously with
the city engineers OF various cities there.
by obtaining the results of wide spread
experience. They agree, without a dis.
senting voice, that pine plank is the
most expensive sidewalk and crossing
material In use, keounting It's original
cost and its tendency to speedy decay
All the testimony aadduced rests upon
the conclusion that asphalt and artificial
stone are the best and most durable sub.
s~titutes for stone in walks and street
crossings and preference is given 20
asphalt, which is used successfully and
economically in many places whers
natural stone is accessible and cheap
The great objection to stone, natural OF
artificial, is its tendency to hold ice il
the winter season and the consequent
danger to pedestrians. An asphalt wall
costs about one-third more than q pine
plank walk, but when onoe laid it il
practically indestructible. Experience
in this country does not go far enough
back to give the lifetim,
of an asphalt sidewalk, as they hav,
been in use only about twelve years. III
Paris there are patches of this wall
showing twenty-five years. wear AMI
still in good condition, and that Cit,
had as far back as 1880, five hundred
thousand yards of asphalt walks. Thil
material has been given severe tests up
en- the streets of American cities, wherei
is subjected to the toughest usage. Buff
falo's ten miles ,of asphalt pavement
constructed in 1879, has thus far cos
comparatively nothing for repairs
The city of Washington contain
sixty-three miles of this pavement, ii
use all the way from nine to five years
upon which the average expense of re
pairs has been q half q cent per var,
per year. Philadelphia, Chicago an.
Omaha furnish like testimony IN behal
of asphalt pavements.
We are discussing sidewalks az
crosswalks, but in obtaining testimon,
ais in behalf of q substitute for WOO
in these improvements Mr.. Palmer ha
taken the experience upon street pave
ments as furnishing absolute proof {
the durability of asphalt, which is th
} popular substitute for other material i
street construction and stands at til
, head in the list of artificial sldewal
material. A plank walk in Yapkto
I will not last more than five years. Ii
; walk which costs only one-third MOI
will last indefinitely, it is of cour'
cheaper than plank. This is a subje,