The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-07-03
OUR GREAT ROAD
Boulevard improvements
Fast Assuming Tangi-
Bile Shape.
TELFORD SOLID AS A ROCK
The Speedway in Good Order
Splendid Steel Bridges.

A few persons are. continually declaring
that the County Boulevard is a very slo"
enterprise and that its completion is a thing
of the far and distant future. People who
think this should take the trouble to examine
the Boulevard as / did yesterday. 1hey
would find that the magnificent thorough
fare has been graded its entire length, four
teen miles: that three miles of telford mas
been laid: thai four miles of curb has been
set: that one and a half miles of the second
layer of stone has been spread over the tel
ford, and that three-fourths of a mile has
received the top layer, and is completed
except SO far as it will require constant roll
ing for a month by the enormous steam
roller used by the contractors.
The grumblers would also learn that the
Hudson County Contracting Company has
seventy teams, twenty-four carts and $50
men at work daily, and hat they operate a
| quarry and a stone crusher which cost S5,GU
and is capable of turning out 6O0 tons, or
400 cubic yards of crushed stone a day. rms
| stone is crushed at the same time into Three
sizes. The first is 21a inches, the next ~
| inches and the third, the screenings OF dust,
which is used for the top layer.
Henry s. McGiyenney, the contractor for
another section, nave nearly as large a force
at work, and they are the ones who have
finished one portion of the Telford pave,
| ment. When it has been rolled daily until
August 1 by the steam roller. it will be as
hard as solid rock and as smooth as an Ice
pond in January.
TO SUIT ALL TASTES.
The manner in which the Boulevard Is
| being paved has been told SO often in H
| JERSEY CITY NEWS that nearly every one is
familiar with it. In the middle of the road
is a dirt roadway. 20 feet vide. tbs IS
| for fast horses. 1t is made of Shark River
| gravel, the best gravel known for drive
WAYS. On each side of it is the Telford
pavement, 20 feet wide. This pavement has
a foundation consisting of broken stone,
ranging from seven to fourteen inches III
length, laid on the hard clay subsoil, This
Is rolled for days by a heavy steam roller
| and il finally becomes as solid as a single
| rock. When this is accomplished a layer of
2L5 inch crushed stone is spread over 1T and
| again the roller does its duty. This Is fol-
lowed by a third layer of IL inch stone,
which, after being rolled, is covered with
the fine screenings. When the last layer is
placed on the road the roller gives the finish
ing touch and it is kept constantly gong
| over the stone for at least one month. Then
| the lob is complete. The solid pavement is
IA inches thick.
FINE MONUMENT SITE.
Yesterday | drove down Sip avenue to
the boulevard. At the intersection a tri-
/ angular piece Of property formed by the
Boulevard, Sip and Tonnele avenues attract
ed my attentian. It is about one-eighth of
an acre in size, and is four OF five feet above
grade. 1t is of little or no use to anybody,
| except those who have in charge the cree
ton of a soldiers monument for which Sl0,-
| 900 has been raised. The land belongs to
Isaac Romano, and the Monument Com
/ mittee is trying to persuade HIM to donate it
| as a site for the monument. If the plot can
be secured the monument will be erected
| there and the value of property nearby en-
| HANGED.
| whose house is on the corner of Sip avenue
| and the Boulevard. had, with his accustomed
enterprise, made a good pavement on the
| Boulevard sidewalk along his property.
The section of the Boulevard, from High
land avenue to the Newark and New York
Railroad, is being paved by Henry & Nc
| Ciyenney. The bottom stone has been laid
I'D to Fairview avenue. Half a mile OF the
| second stone has been spread, and one-fourth
of a mile of the top layer has been distrib-
uted. Shark. River gravel has been laid
| over half of the middle roadway. The road
between Eye and Virginia avenue is abso-
| lutely finished.
If the grumblers want to see something
| IGhllf EOOu dhtk OAAo FALA u ~
their complaints, let them visit this sample
section. The surface of the Telford pave
| ment is smooth and firm as adamantlne.
The wheels of the heaviest laden truck can
not make an impression on 1T. n dirt
| road in the centre of the Boulevard is also
| hard, but not too hard for the feet Of the
| ~trotters that will soon speed over it. Ii is a
| regularity of Shark River gravel roads
that while the surface appears hard, it does
not injure fast horses.
This completed section of the road is a
credit to the contractors, the Chief Engip-
eer and the Board OF Freeholders, and If all
the rest of tho Boulevard, when finished,
presents as good an appearance
the taxpayers of the county ought
to be we'll satisfied with the enter
prise. The estimated cost for keeping this
magnificent driveway in thorough repair is
about $500 0 a year. This includes electric
lights and all other expenses. The actual
cost of keeping the Boulevard in repair, that
is, the roadway, is 81 900 a mile or about
$4,000. "
REA TEE BRIDGE.
From Virginia / vent tc the Newark and
| New York Railroad, and there
the magnificent steel bridge in the course of
erection. This bridge is to be 105 feet long,
and the three girders are the heaviest ever
brought into this country. Each OF them
weighs twenty-four tons. They are LOS feet
long and eight feet high. They are OF solid
steel. All the minor supports are of the
same material, and the deck of the bridge is
to be of steel arched buckle plates capable
of standing a pressure of t~wenty-four tons
without bending or breaking. An asphalt
pavement will be laid over the
plates. Asphalt will be used instead
Of telford on the bridge, because
the latter will not pack sufficiently we'll on
the steel plates. The bridge will have a
roadway forty feet wide and two sidewalks
each ten feet wide. TIE abutments of the
bridge are built of heavy blocks of Della
ware River sandstone, and the masonry is
said to be excellent. 1t was done by Holmes
81 Cogan, and the bridge is being built by
the Pennsylvania Steel Company. 1t will
be lighted by four electric lights, one at
each corner. This work will be, completed
by August /.
ALONG OLD BERGEN ROAD.
From this point I continued my journey
| down the Old Bergen Road, which had been
widened fifty feet for the Boulevard, |
noticed that q number of telegraph poles had
not vet been removed from what is now the
centre Of the Boulevard. When erected they
were on the sidewalk of the old road. Two
or three street lampposts also remain to be
moved by the city, n Schlunds
house at Cedar avenue has not been
moved back, although the court has directed
the removal. All Of these instructions will
be gotten rid of in a very short time. AT
the Morris Canal / saw the new steel bridge,
over which the Lehigh Valley Railroad has
behaved SO churlfshly. 1t is a counterpart