The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1889-05-24

To a person who Is seriously interest,"
I 10 the affairs Of this county as a tax
payer the manner OF conducting a
county bridge letting, by the County
7 Commissioners. il examined into close
I ~ will furnish much food for reflection.
y letting is generally supposed TO be
made for the purpose of giving the
county the benefit of competition among
contractors and mechanics, by which
] the county like an individual, will get
its work done by competent aTtizans,
skilled in that particular line of bust
ness at fair cost. For the protection
of :he interests OF the county, the Com
missioners employ an engineer to fur
nish the plans of the structure. look
after the work during its construction.
| see that good materials are used and
that the work is done in accordance
with the terms OF the contract.
In the past two years a number OF
iron bridges have been built, the old
fashioned wooden bridges abandoned,
and we think wisely. 1t has been
scientifically demonstrated that iron
for bridge work Is much better than
wood and IN the end, the cheapest
Whether this Is the reason for the num-
ber OF iron bridges lately having been
built in this county we are unable TO
say. as when the history Of the county
comes to be written, this will certainly
ha L-pnU-r, - -,
provement made oy the present board
of Commissioners is certain TO have an
iron contract in it-from a hitching
post TO a bedstead-from a cell IN the
jail to a bridge il must, like the recon
structiOn oath, be iron clad Bot this
Is digressing. We started out On bridges
and will try and stick 70 the text.
Bridge building like everything else
must be learned and several bridges
were built before the Commissioners
got their hand 10, but they are now ex-
perts. The earlier bridges We will pass
and commence with abe Letter structures.
About year ago the county built a
bridge az Dean station on the Cresson
ana Coalport road, and In order 20 get
the bridge built az a fair price. gent 10
the trouble OF having q letting at that
letting the Commissioners engineer
furnished the plans and specifications /;
Al the same letting the Commissioners
engineer among others, was a bidder !;
at the same letting the Commissioners
engineer was awarded the contract for
bailding the bridge, and afterward, as
a matter OF course, with the sole end in
view of seeing that the county got
honest work, carefully watched the
progress of construction to see that no
inferior work was done or materials
used. When the work was done the
engineer. as the agent OF the Commits
sioners, accepted the work from the
contractor, and we have no doubt was
highly pleased with the manner in
which the contractor performed the
work. In fact the testimonials fur.
nished by the engineer in commenda>
tion or the contractors bridge build
ing are supposed to have led 70 the con
clusion reached by the Commissioners
that they would give the same con-
tractor couple of iron bridges to build
without going through the tormality of
letting. This they did and the bridge
at the east end of Ebensburg, and
across the B!acklick at Duncan's mill,
are monuments to the engineer, the
contractor and the Commissioners.
The cost was trife high but all par
ties TO the contract seem to be satisfied.
Some time ago the Commissioners
concluded 20 build three more iron
bridges. one at Frugality. one IN Num-
ster township, and one at Hastings, and
advertised letting for the same. The
time for the letting was on last Monday
two weeks ago. and according to their
advertisement was TO be in two parts.
one for the iron work, the other for the
stone work. At the time announced
for the letting the bIds were opened
and the contract for the iron work was
duly awarded tn the Variety Iron
Works OF Cleveland Ohio, for 50 200.
The contract for the stone work was
held over. until Tuesday last, although
the bidders were all anxious 10 learn
who would get the contract, that they
might il successful, begin at once on
the work. The bids are as follows:
II