Los Angeles herald., 1892-08-26
SEVERAL DEFECTS FOUND
THE FIGUEROA-sTKEET PAVEMENT
BY NO MEANS PERFECT.
Cutters Not Properly Grouted-The In
spection Yesterday by the Coun-
cil-Pavements Laid I'm Soft
Foundations.

Thirty or forty owners of property
along the line of Figueroa street from
Pico to Washington street, turned out
at 2 O'Clock yesterday afternoon to ac-
company the members Of the cou neil in
tour of investigation.
At the meeting of the council held on
Monday, protests were heard against
the acceptance of the work of paving
and guttering Figueroa street between
the limits indicated above.
Nearly all the members of the council
were present, and at the request Of some
OF the property owners, General Bald
win, ex-superintendent of streets, made
careful examination of the work. E.
F. Spence and Supe rintendent DraDe,
OF the paving company, were also pres
ent.
The reasons urged against the accept
ance OF the work were that the material
used failed to comply with the specifi-
cations, and that the work had not been
done in proper and workmanlike man
ner. The stone cutters were said not to
have been properly grouted. and much
of the asphaltum laid over soft, spongy
ground, so unsuitable for foundation
for pavement, that already the street
presented serious inequalities OF eur
face and promised to rapidly grow
worse. Yl
A very careful inspection was first
made of the cutters. There are two or
three places where the stones have sunk
slightly, and for large part of the dis
tance from Pico street to Sixteenth, on
the south side of the street, the inter-
stices between the stones are filled with
sand and dirt. which may be pecked out
with penknife or swept out with
broom. This state of affairs evidently
arose from the fact that before any ce-
ment was used in the cutters, the space
between the stones had beenNallowed to
become filed with rubbish, so that
there was no room for the cement,
which, in consequence, was merely
swept into a thin layer covering the
stones.
On the opposite side of the street over
the whole distance from Pico to Wash
ington street, the stones forming the
gutter are in their proper position and
the grouting thoroughly done. On the
south side of the street, from Sixteenth
street to Washington, there seems to be
no ground for fault-fnding so far aa re-
CARDS the cutters.
An examination OF the roadway dis
cl sed two places where the porphyry
foundation had been laid on wet and
spongy ground and the mud had oozed
up through the rock; and, as the btu
minous finish does not harden well
when exposed to moisture, the pave
ment at those places is soft. It was
urged by some of the protestants that
the paving material was Of poor quality,
because horseshoes with sharp calks,
and heavily loaded trucks left very
plain imprint on the street. Mr.. Drane
insisted that an asphalt pavement
which was so hard as to show no marks
Of horses feet would soon disintegrate !;
that the material used on Figueroa
street was the best in the city, and the
best product of the San Luis Obispo
mines.
Mr.. Spence, for the paving co mpany,
expressed Eits entire Willingness to do
the work OF grouting the cutters over
again on the three blocks where the
work is faulty, or do any other work
necessary to make the job come fully up
to the specifications.
The members of the council made no
| formal announcement of their decision,
but it seemed to be generally understood
that the paving company will be re-
quired to make good the work OF grout-
ing the gutter on the north side of the
street, and to dig up the pavement over
the wet places, replacing the soft earth
with dry, and relaying the pavement in
workmanlike manner, after which the
| job is to be treated as good one, and
the laborer declared worthy of his hire.