The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-06
KEPT IN REPAIR EASILY.
WHY THE CITY DECIDED TO TRY
VULCANITE PAVING.

|
What 1t Costs to Keep Up the Vul-
canite Paved Streets in Washington
The Material in Use There Since
1e71-What the Commissioner OF
the District of Columbia Say About
It-Works to be Established Here.
Now that the city has contracte with
the National Vulcanite asphaltic company
for the vulcanito pavement on Liberty and
Broughton streets, and conditionally on
Barnard street, there will be some interest
until the preparatory work begins, and
especially so, as the impression was given
out by Mr. Murdoch, the agent Of the com
pany, when he ~as here few days ago,
that, if his company received the contract,
it contemplated the organization of south
ern headquarters in Savannah, for the pur-
pose of working Georgia and contiguous
| states
A MORNING NEWS reporter called on Gen.
f. p Alexander yesterday to see if he could
| give the public any idea of the plans of the
| Vulcanite company. Gen. Alexander said
that he could not He put in the bid for
the work as trustee only. The company
gave him power of attorney to make the
|
ton, but he was unable to forecast the com
panV'5 plans.
The National Vulcanite company was
recently organized under the laws of New
Jersey. The officers are: George w. Quin-
tard, president; David L. Bartlett, De Witt
| G. Cregier and Louis S. Filbert, vice-presi-
dent, and L. H. Stevens secretary and
treasurer, with their Office ct Ne. IS Broad
street, New York. Mr.. Murdoch is the
| hnfOra hn
street and lane committee and the city coun-
Gil to represent the company and explain
the vulcanite pavement.
NOT NEW THING.
Mr.. Murdoch said of the pavement that
it is not a new thing, as many think it
having been laid in Washington seventeen
| years ago, and he claimed that
some of the pavement laid then is
in as good condition as when it was first
laid. The vulcanite pavement, he says, has
stood the severest tests in Pittsburg, Pa,
where the traffic is heavy, and the pave
mont has suffered comparatively little
deterioration.
Mr.. Murdoch cited K street in Washing
ton, laid with the vulcanite pavement by
DR.. Filbert, one of the vice presidents Of
the company, in 1874, almost in as good
condition now as when laid fourteen years
ago, the cost of repairs not exceeding
-
with nearly $4,000 square yards laid in
1887, has cost for repairs only $2Sl. The
engineer commissioner of Washington, in
his report this year, states that the life of
the vulcauite pavement is fifteen years, and
when reinforced it will last fifteen years
longer, and it can be laid from gutter to
gutter without fear of rotting, and is not
subject to cracks or waves at the sur ace as
asphalt.
WHAT 1T is MADE OF.
For the vucanite pavement it is claimed
to be homogeneous in all its parts. It's base
is broken stone banded together by distillate
and rolled by ten-ton steam roller, twice
as heavy as is used in rolling asphalt pave
ments. On the base is laid a binder
course of very small broken stones
cemented together by the asphalt
tum distillate mixture and heavily
rolled. The wearing or top surface consists
of stone dust, carbonate of lime, pure sill
cate, hydraulic cement, flour of sulphur,
refined asphaltum and distillate of coal tar
properly proportional, and when the heavy
steam roller passes over it and compacts it,
it presents 2 inches of wearing surface to
travel, the entire pavement being 81 inches
deep, and after fourteen or fifteen years of
use it can be resurfaced at cost of about
81 per square yard.
Probably the one thing that did more
than all the other claims to lead the council
to adopt the vulcanite pavement was the
following from the annual report of the
commissioners of the District of Columbia
for 1897, in which they say:
| The 1885 square yards OF vulcanite pave
ments in Washington have only averaged 20
cents per square yard per annum for fourteen
years maintenance, the average being 0.3 cents
per square yard for the first five years. AZ cents
for the second five years, and cents for the
last four years. Had all of these pavements
| re-SlIrfarpd ut ha
contract price of 81 05 per square yard they
would be under guaranty for five years from
| July |, 1897, and the mean annual average ex-
pense to the district for maintenance, for a pc
| rod of twenty years, would not exceed 116 cents
per square yard.
ANOTHER INDUSTRY FOR SAVANNAH.
1t will be seen that the council in adopting
the vulcanite did not do so without having
the benefit of the experiments of the United
States government. and believing, too, that
i'll doing SO it would lead to the location Of
another industry in Savannah, for if the
vucanite pavement is as durable as is
claimed for it, a southern Headquarters
Will be necessary, and the materials
can be brought to Savannah
as cheaply, and distributed as cheaply as in
any city of the country. In fact, about all the
materials used in the composition Of the vul-
canite pavement can come as ballast, and
will no doubt cheaper the product SO that
Savannah may be enabled to have other
streets paved at even less than by the pres
eut contract. As it is the CITY gets an
Sl5-inch pavement as low as the bid for a
6-inch asphalt pavement.
Representatives Of the National Vulcan
lite company are expected here later on to
look over the field and see what is the out
look for the organization of company with
view to pushing the pavement in the