Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-04-30

The contractor is paid for repairs, under hi
contract, by the yard for the material used
ne employs one or two gangs on the work. Il
break or hole in a street in East Washington
Is w reported while his men are at work in Mes
washington he goes on with his work in Wes
washington and the holes in East Washington
increase in size and number until there are
enough OF them to pay the contractor, who il
paid, as stated, according to the amount of ma
terlal used to shift his gangs, tools and tarpott
70 East Washington. This offers some explana.
tion OF the reason why, as citizens often won
DER, breaks In pevements are not repaired with
reasonable promptness. 1t would be unprofit
able Tor the contractor to send o gang Of men
to repair q small hole requiring only fraction
OF cubic yard OF material. As the District
mas at present no asphalt works, it is stated, il
cannot employ its own gangs Of men ON this
work.
NOT PROFITABLE TO THE CONTRACTOR.
Capt. Rossell, the assistant to the Engineer
Commissioner, said to Q STAR reporter, when
asked why the contractor did not mend hole.
az fast as they occurred, that he could not do
1t under his contract without great loss The
contract had been based on the manner in
which the work had always been done, and to
require the contractor to send out q gang OF
men with the necessary appliances to every
hole that was reported would be, Capt Rosseil
thought, quite unfair. Instead of two or three
repair gangs he said, ten or eleven would be
required to give prompt attendance to every
break. Capt. hossell said that he was consid-
ering what was the best way to remedy the
existing state Of affairs which he thought
afforded just cause Of complaint. He was not,
he said. inclined to adopt measures that would
be harsh and ruinous to a contractor, but he
believed the District would be obliged to break
the existing contract or devise some better sys-
tenn. When asked why the District could not
undertake to make the repairs with its own
gangs OF workmen. Capt. Rossell said that to
do that would require at the outset congress
slonal appropriation to provide asphalt works.
Even then it would be doubtful whether they
could get the asphalt. as he knew of only one
concern from which the District could pur-
chase it and that was the Barber Asphalt Com
pany.
An ASPHALT MONOPOLY.
The monopoly controlling asphalt it appears,
from statements of various District
officials, hampers the Districts work in
various directions. Some years ago an
effort was made to put into execu-
ton plan by which the District would do
some of its own work on the streets with
asphalt. Proposals were invited for furnish
ing crude asphalt to the District, but the prices
named were SO high that none could be ac-
cepted. This was believed to be due to the
fact that the interests Of the monopoly would
not be served by selling asphalt to the District
to be. used on street work. At
present there are two asphalt contracting firms
here, the Barber company and the Crawford
company. The latter company, it is stated,
gets its asphalt from the Barber company, so
that, SO far as supplies of asphalt are con-
cerned, there is but one concern.
Capt. Rossell, in explaining to q STAR re-
porter why contractors who were delinquent in
street work had not been more severely dealt
with, said that he thought it best to try to
have the work done without trouble He
could not, he said, 60 and do the work himself
and have 1t charged to the contractors bond,
as he could in the case Of q graveled or macad-
amized roadway, because the District had not
its own asphalt works.
THE APPROPRIATIONS AMPLE.
Capt. Rossel said he had no complaint to
make as to the amount of appropriations for
repairs and Restricting. The new appropria.
ton is $3.50, 600 This covers both the work Of
repair and OF resurfacing. Capt. Rossell said
that it was left to the Commissioners to deter
mine how much should be expended in resur-
facing and how much in minor repairs. II all
were expended in minor repairs, Capt. Rossell
said, there was enough to put the pavements in
good repair, buta similar amount would be re-
quired next year and there would be no end to
repairing. His policy, which he believed would
be found the best in the end. was to expend
about 500, 900 year in resurfacing and about
$4,000 or $500 for repairs for about three
years. At the end of that time he thought.
they would have made a great gain. The re.
enforced pavements would be kept in order for
i've years under the contractors guarantees.
UNDER THE FIVE YEARS GUARANTEE,
Capt Rossell said he thought that as q rule
the asphalt pavements, still under the five years
guarantee, were kept in reasonably good re-
pair. The streets about which there was most
complaint, he said, were those on which coal
tar pavements were laid in 1897 when the Com
missioners required that such pavements be
"a nav nfa inf he.
rial used being poor. The contractors, he said,
were not inclined to repair them, claiming that
they could not equitably be compelled to as
the faults were due to the character of the ma
terial and the material used was just what the
Commissioners required them to use.
In support of this claim they cited a case where
. wood pavement was laid under the old board
Of public works and when it wore out the Dis
trict authorities laid in its place an as
phalt pavement and charged it to the origi-
the claim against them. In the present cases
Capt. ROssel thought the District could not re-
quire the contractors to lay new asphalt sur
faces, but could require them to lay new coal
tar surfaces He was making up = list of these
cases, he said, and proposed to push them and
in good condition even II he had to begin action
in law against them.
REASONS FOR DELAYR
There were, he said, delays on the part Of con-
tractors for asphalt pavements in making nee
essary repairs. Sometimes there we're good
reasons from the contractors point of view for
these delays. He mentioned, in this connec-
ton, one street asphalted two years ago BY the
Barber Company and which now needed stten-
ton. The works OF the Barber Company are
now closed. They had contracts to perform on
certain streets and were unable to 60 to work
because the railroad companies occupying the
streets had not yet done the necessary prelimi-
nary work. When the Barber Company WAS
permitted to 60 ahead with its extensive con-
tracts Capt. Rossen thought it would ct the
samo time do the work necessary to put IT, old
pavements in repair.
TIE 14TH STREET PAvENExf.
The l4th street pavement mentioned above,
, portion Of which is ON the list Of those to be
resurfaced this year, Capt. Resell says, has
given moro trouble than any pavement In thu
city. This was due in part 70 The fnct that the