The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-10
STREET RAILWAYSK AFIX.
They are Ordered 10 Pave Between and
4 Feet Outside Their Tracks.


An Old Ordinance With That require
ment Resurrected and its Enforce
ment Directed by the Mayor-The
Railways TO Fight 1.-THE Cost of
the Required Paving Estimated at
not Less Than $50, ooo-What the
Railway Men Saw About IL
The street railways are in a peck Of
trouble and Mayor McDonough rs re-
/ sponsible for il.
The managers Of all the street lines
/ were notified Yesterday by Clerk of
| Council Rebarer, by order OF the mayor,
that they must fill in and grade between
| their tracks four feet each way from the
center with some hard substance as re-
quired by Section 1897 Of MacDonell's
/ code.
/ The railway managers were thunder
struck at the order. They thought it was
! pretty hard when the mayor required
them to water their tracks to keep the
| dust laid and the idea of having to grade
and pave their tracks throughout the city
never occurred to them.
Section 1897 is part of an ordinance up
on street railways passed Aug. Is, 1883.
The first portion of the section reads as
follows:
THE LAW THAT CoMPEIs 1T.
| Roadbed How Constructed and How to be
| Kept. The company or corporation con-
| Structing railway in the streets of said city
| shall. at its own expense, arrange the roadbed
| and so lay its tracks that the same will be OF
| even grade with the street in which it may be
4 laid and shall bring its track four feet each
/ way from the center of the same to the prop
| er grade TO be fixed by the ityssurveyora and
| shall, at its own expense, repair and keep in
| repair according to the proper grade so fixed
] four fee each way, until otherwise required,
| from the center of said track with such ma
| terial as win form hard and uniform surface
| OF even grade at the point of junction with the
| rails themselves, SO that carriages
| and other vehicles can cross the
track with facility and comfort and at the
! points where the tracks Of any company or
| corporation shall intersect or cross any street
! or lane Of said city, the company or corpora
| ton constructing the same shall provide
| planks or stone crossings OF the full width of
| such street or lane as is comprised between
| the curbs of such street or lane, ETC.
| A BLIssFUL IGNORANCE ENLIGHTENED.
| With all the miles of street railway
| which have been built within the last
| several years, the companies have re
manned in blissful ignorance of any Ordi-
| nance requiring them to grade and pave
| their rOadbed. The street railway tracks
| were laid according to grades determined
| by the city engineer, and the railway
! companies thought when this was done
| that nothing more was required of them
until the city decided to pave any street
used by street railway, when the COM
pany would be required to paw for the
| paving of the space between its tracks,
and for two feet upon each side.
| This they thought was all that was re-
| quired and the railways were never very
| anxious to have council order any street
used by them paved, as a good portion of
the costs had to be paid out of their
| treasures. They never dreamed that
| they were required to pave their whole
roadbed for a width of eight feet. That
such an order should be issued at q time
| when the railroads, some of them at least,
| are not making expenses, and when it is
! almost impossible to procure money for
| any enterprise, no matter how well
founded, they regard as an unnecessary
| hardship. They are at a loss
to know why Mayor McDough should
have decided to enforce such an ordinance
| at this time.
THEY WANT TO KNOW.
The ordinance was passed Aug 49, 1888,
| just ten years ago, since which time it
! has rested in oblivion until resurrected by
! Mayor McDOnOugh The street railway peo-
| pie do not know how Mayor McDonough
| happened to discover the ordinance any
/
| ing up the ordinance to compel the street
railway to water their tracks during the
summer months. They would like to
| know if the mayors dissatis-
faction with their manner in
| conforming with this ordinance prompted
him to enforce all the requirements of the
law against them.
Superintendent Saussy of the Belt Line
said yesterday that he had been in charge
| of that road for the last six years and he
| never knew there was such an Ordinanc @.
He regards it a great hardship that the
ordinance should be enforced at this par
ticular time The Belt Line has six miles
of track on unpaved streets north of An
derson street, the present city limits.
The ordinance requires that the street
railroads shall grade and pave for four
feet on each side from the center of their
tracks or total width of eight feet. This
makes 2S, 100 square yards of grading and
paving required for the six miles.
Estimating this at the low cost of so cents
per square yard for work and material,
the total cost for the work required would
be over S14, 900
Supt. Saussy regards it as next to i'm
possible for railroad which has already
acknowledged that it is not making ex-
penseS to procure such an amount of
money at present for such a purpose.
WOULD COST $4,000.
iho L1IoOVIlO idl"dS hilS mas aoouI SIX
miles of road on unpayed streets within
the corporate limits, while the City and
Suburban and Coast Line railways to-
gether have as much more. To comply
with Mayor McDonough's order would
cost the street railways somewhere
in the neighborhood of $4,000, The only
''hard substance" they know of that
would meet the requirements is ebert, the
new paving material, and its cost and
durability are still uncertain quantities,
President Collins of the Electric rail
way said he did not see how it was posi-
bic for the street railways to comply with
the mayors order at present, and he con-
sidered it an extraordinary hardship
upon them to do so at any time.
Things are getting in a state where
we might as well turn our lines over to
the city and be done with it," said MIR.
Collins.
II 10 contain that tho s+,.oat 10 Il v,-, VIC