Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-01-13
METROPOLITAN GREATNESS
SIXTY-FOUR MILES OF SEWER MAIN
GOING IN.
Wichita Provided With Finer Water and
Light and Sewer Systems and
Service than any Other City
in the Great West,

nection with construction of the principal
outlet and the mains and sub-mains of the
city's sewer system, now being so vigor-
ously prosecuted by Sullivan and Steinmetz
and small army of men, Commencing
at point some four miles southeast Of
this Office, near the junction of Chisholm
creek and the Arkansas river, great ex-
cavation, three miles long and from ten tc
fourteen feet deep, has been made For a
distance OF two miles, a great hollow CYL
indrical sewer, nearly nine feet in
circumference has been constructed,
out of trip-hammer brick and &C.
ment, at the bottom of that
excavation. In coming through a roll or
swell of the valley, about one mile this
side OF the outlet, the eXcavators ran into
water and quicksand. This fact fright
ened some people. but the contractors
had tested their ground by experimental
shafts and were prepared for just that
exlgency, and the work was not percepti-
bly, delayed
Yesterday, on invitation of Mayor Allen,
A w. Oliver, president of the board of
trade; W. A. Thomas, CounciImen Healy.
Pratt, Slower, Glaze and Buckeridge to-
gether with 0. c. Daisy and others includ-
ing the writer, made a trip out to inspect
the work on the main outlet which is
completed up to and into the limits of the
city, or for about two miles, with the
excavating nearly finished for a mile
further, practically up to the
point where the turn is made to the west
catch the sub-mains which run directly
south along the alleys We found great
force of men at work in the quicksand
section, and the efficient and rapid way in
which the difficulty, presented by the in
flowing water and sand, is overcome, was
surprising. Down along the sides of the
excavation is driven fiat or plank-piling
so close and tight as to exclude the water.
The great ditch is cut up by low dams,
into practically watertight compartments
of thirty or forty feet. The water that
comes in at the bnttom is bailed from one
to the other of these compartments on
ahead of the bricklayers The sewer is
built in twelve foot sections around a core.
The water being all bailed out of the COM
partment in which the next section
Is to 90 in the bricklayers hastily
stretch their line and run in the bottom
courses of brick with water cement. The
core is then put in position on this bottom
and the brick tenders and cement tenders
put the materials quickly to the hands of
the brlcklaYers who in a surprisingly short
time cover the twelve foot core, plaster it
all over with quick setting water cement,
the core is withdrawn and the earth at the
sides permitted to roll in and cover it up.
AT night all of the accumulated waters for
the day in the compartments ahead are
released and they rush back through the
sewer and down to the river, now two
miles away. Every five hundred feet a
man hole is built of brick up to the sur
face of the ground and capped with a
heavy cast iron top. The whole work pre-
sents busy scene with coming and going
teams, great steam portable boiler for
heating water with which the cement is
made, the bailers, the pile drivers, the bod
carriers. the engineers and the expert
and bosses. Another mile or
less will land the great main or outlet
sewer this side of the quicksands One
hundred and forty feet of this huge pipe
Of brick and cement is constructed daily.
The low water in the river and the open
winter have both been favorable to the
and in this the city rejoices
with them.
The system Under contract consists of
SiXty-four miles of main outlet mains,
sub-mains and latterals, and if the weather
continues favorable all the deep
excavating will be finished and
the brick and cement work
completed before the spring rise in the
river. The sub-mains, of which there are
five lines, are going in very rapidly and
with no trouble from water. The sub
mains are OF thing, sixty inches inside
A man hole is put in these
sub-mains every 306 feet and observation
holes every 100 feet, both being capped
with heavy iron castings. Before the city
IS aware of it, almost, the great outlet
will have been finished and the five lines
Of sub-mains will be rushing up through
IS many different alleys, cutting across
principal business and residence streets in
such way as Will for a time puzzle traf-
ic and make the town look like a
freshly fortiged battle ground The sub
mains are on a lower level than the water
mains and gas mains, and will, conse-
luently, pass clear under or beneath
hem.
In this important matter of sewerage
Wichita Will boast as she boasts of her
'treet-car, and water, and gas, and electric
light systems-the very best sewer service
If any city in the west. The SiXty-four
niles of sewerage now under contract viii /
thoroughly accommodate all that portion of !
he city lying between the Great Arkansas I
liver and Chisholm creek and north to /.
seventeenth street, a district one mile wide (
y four long. The capacity of the outlet I
main and submains will meet the sewage /
wants of several hundred thousand people /
n short, with this system completed and /
'ur business streets paved, Wichita will |
AVE the best systems of public service, !
he most complete and metropolitan of ,
ny city in the west, not excepting Chi .
ago or St. Louis. IL is an undeniable |
act that Wichita water system and ser
ice, including the quality or purity of the |
5ater and quantity is surpassed by no /
ity in the world. No natural fountain or
priug ever gurgled up more limped and |
parking waters than are poured into the
ONES of this city, and next to pure and
Tholesome water for the health and we'll
eng of a city is perfect sewerage.
MUSIC AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The EAGLE has often been honored bv
rass and silver cornet bands of various
egrees OF excellence and marked scales of
allure, but not until yesterday were we
yer called upon to throw open our win
ows-and heart-to the music discourSed
V silver cornet band manned by an or
anization of uniformed ladies. whose
rum major was the embodiment of time
nd majesty and still undeniably of the
entler sex. The Kate Baker band, with
le Clair Pattee dramatic company who