Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-05-04
SOLE SAY BRICK,
The Property Holders Who Made
the Trip, Enthusiastic.
The Formal Report From Them On
the subj ect Of Paving..-The COun-
ellis COnimittee-.-Yeste Meet.
ing.

The meeting of Second avenue proper
ty holders held at the rooms of the Citi
zens' Impre vement association yesterds,
afternoon pursuant to Chairman Blu
ford's call. was not by any means lsrgel
attended, yet among those who wer,
present the sentiment was very strongl'
in favor of brick as material for paving
Second avenue. Dir. B. D. Buford pre-
sided and MIR. Phil Mitchell was secreta
ry. A number of samples OF pawn.
brick and WOOD were on exhibition. Th,
first business in order was the receiving
of the formal report OF the committee o.
the property owners who inspected brcb
pavement at Quincy and Galesburg
The report. which is signed by Capt. T.
j. Robinson, e. II. Guyer and Phi
Mitchell. is appended:
To the property holders on Second
avenue between Fourteenth and TWEEN
tieth streets: committee appoint
ed to examine and report upon street
paving IN mel ghboring cities. respectfully
present the following report:
We first visited Quincy. H., where
the city offic ais afforded us every IA
cility for examining their paving. Quin>
cy is paved exclusively with vitrified
brick, which we found in uniformly ex-
cellent condition. They have there
taken especial pains to get good foun68-
~; nd 10 hao oil f,,n
laid, and as consequence. their streets
paved six years ago are now in practi-
cally as good state as when laid. They
are smooth. even, and.the bricks show no
apprecisble wear. So far as we could
their citizens are thoroughly
pleased with brick paving, and they are
now paving their main thoroughfsres,
where traffic is heaviest, with Galesburg
brick, using the following formula: a.
Excsvating down to solid earth, leaving
tie bed with same arch and grade that
upper paved surface must show. (2) Four
inches macadan, hauled on the ground
in large stone and pounded up on the
spot to sizes that will pass through
two inch ring, this thoroughly tsmped or
rolled with heavy roller. g. Six inches
of sand rolled or tsmped. a One
layer good hard burned local brick laid
crosswise of the street 60 One inch
sand. 90 One layer Gslesburg pay
ing brick laid edgewise and crosswise of
the street. A. street intersections the
paving lines radiste from each corner to
the central street intersection. This
paving is now being laid at Quincy. by
contract. under the superintendent of
the city engineer and superintendent of
streets. at a cost of 81 IS per square
yard, including curbing, the contractor
hauling material excavated to any other
street within ten squares that the
city authorities may direct. Quincy has
used in paving the Bardolph (Tllinois)
brick, and brick from each of the two
Galesburg facto ries, and all the Quincy
brick pavementB are in good condition.
We also visited Galesburg, I'll. There
are brick psvements in Galesbnrg that
have been down eight years. At this
place they have not used the same care
with their foundations as at Quincy, and
the pavements ire therefore more or less
uneven. This, of course. makes q more
severe test Oh the bricks themselves,
which they do not show
and those that have been in
use six or eight years would be just as
good as any to lay again on proper
foundation. In Galesburg, as at Quincy,
the pc ople have brick psvements. We
visited two paving brick factories at
Galesburg and one at BardOlph, all of
which, in our opinion, are making good
paving brick.
The committee of our city council has
not made its official report, but in an in
terview with an ARGUS reporter, Chair
man Negus says that .one block OF brick
pavement was put down on the west side
Of the court house 1t Bloomington, ILL.,,
fourteen years ago. as an experiment. ren
pairs on which have not exceeded 800
during that time, an average Of about 81
per year-a truly remarkable showing.
We did not visit Peoria. H., but we
are advised that that city has six miles of
cedar block pavement, which has been in
use for about six years. They have dis
;arded that style Of pavement, and all OF
heir new paving is of brick. with which
hey are perfectly satisfied. They are
now laying in Peoria pavement of brick.
he dimensions of which are 12x4x5
inches. Some OF this has been down two
years and gives excellent satisfaction.
It's cost is $l.S4 per square yard. includ-
ng everything. This brick is made at
Ottawa, Ill. so far as we can learn Chi
ago has never given brick pavements
est. Years ago they laid hollow brick at
\ street intersec ion which was pro-
lounced failure, but this is far differ
,nt m aterial from The solid, tough brick
which is now being used.
In a pamphlet issued by A. II. Perkins,
president OF the Western Paving anc
Supply Co., Chicago, which has been
kindly loaned to US by Alderman Negus,
we CLEAN some important information.
In the first place. however, it must be re-
that Mr.. Perkins is q contrac
tor for laying cedar block pavements, and
therefore directly interested in recon-.
men ding cedar blocks, to the detriment
of other kinds of paving. Mr.. Perkins
quotes from an Allegheny. Pa. report
where brick paving was represented as
successful only, but inasmuch
as fire brick was used in this case, ma
terial manifestly unfit for street paving.
it affords no criterion MIR. Perkins also
mentions other places where brick pave
ments were only partially successful, but
these partial failures may be invariably
attributed to the use of inferior brick, or
inferior foundation, or both. Moreover {.
in an other place he admits that in West
Virginia, in Stuben vile. Ohio. in Bloom>
ington and Jacksonville, and in St. Louis
and other places satisfactory brick pave
ments have been laid. 1t has been shown
by actual test that it is possible to make
a durable pavement of fire brick"
From this same pamphlet we get the
following useful information in regard to
foundation:
1.-The most important provision to be
made in constructing any street pave
ment is that of q &C cd foundation. With.