Daily Kennebec journal., 1895-04-08
CITY ENGINEERS REPORT.
Condition Of the ciiy's Properly Interesting
Paper on Our Sewers.

City Engineer Gannett has rendered te
the city government his annual report as
follows:
Mount Pleasant cemetery: as the
superintendent of burials and city treas
urer were in need of plan of this ceme-
terry, made an extended survey of the
same and finished several copies of plans
for the use of these officers
Northern avenue: No records of this
road could be found either in this city OF
Wiscasset, and as there was some trouble
in regard to the boundary, the county
commissioners were called upon to estab-
lish the bounds, and records of the same
are at the court house.
Sewers were constructed in the follow
ing streets; Church, Cedar, Hospital to
Middle, DIckman, Eastern avenue, Flagg,
Gannett, from Grecnlief to Cony, Grove
from the rear of Augusta house south.
Oak street from Dickman to Flagg, Win
ter, from Bridge street south 100 feet,
and sewer through the gully in Staple
ton to Capitol Plans and profiles Of all
these are at my office on file.
- profile of State street was made in
May and the work of putting in about 900
| feet of Telford was commenced in August
under the supervision of Mr. Nevins of
Boston. If the work in this direction is
continued, the city will have in a few
years street that it may well feel proud
of.
SIN conclusion I will say that there is
a great need of a plan of a sewerage sys-
TEN, so that when it shall be finished each
part will be adapted to the work it will
have to perform when all is in complete
operation.
Mr.. Gannett has furnished for the
Journal the following interesting article
on sewers:
There are about five miles of pipe sewers
and two miles of stone sewers in our city ;
the last being for the most part laid in the
beds of the small streams that ran through
our gullies not long ago. These stone
culverts can be used to a great advantage
to carry off the surface water for many
years, but it is a great mistake to connect
our houses with them through new lines
of pipe.
The fault Of these stone sewers is that
the size, form and mode of construction
are not in accordance with the work they
have to perform. They were generally
made with flat inverts and the stream of
sewerage flowing through them is often
very small in proportion to the size and
when spread out over a large flat surface
the velocity is so much impeded by the
frictional resistance of the bed, and the
angles of the channel, that the solid mat
ter is deposited until possibly they will be-
come eventually choked. This happens
also, of course, when we put a large pipe
sewer in the street and have only a few
houses enter it; therefore at the head of
our sewers which are large in proportion
to the present flow. we should have an
automatic flush h-tank, which will keep the
sewer cleared out without any manual
labor being performed.
When it has been decided that we need
system to our sewers the first thing to
do is to find out what nature has done
and what has been done by artificial
means for the accomplishment of the
work of the sewerage of our city. The
main lines should take generally the direc
ton of the drainage valleys. The ordi-
nary sewers are now laid in perfectly
straight lines, preferably in the middle of
the street, having manholes at every point
OF lateral deviation or change of gradient.
feet control, by constructing the sewers
on perfectly straight lines, and by intro
ducing numerous manholes and lamp
holes, and can be examined az any time
without breaking the ground, removing
any deposit by the aid of special tools ap
piled at the manholcs.
Even if it is not intended to build the
entire system Immediately. we should
,1n,, <,f = ha
tire work so that when it is finally finished
every part will act togther and perform
the work to which it is adapted and act
as a continuous whole. An accurate
map of our city with a complete set of
notes to be owned by the city ought to be
made toGther with a profile of streets.
This profile can be used to establish the
grade of the streets and Sidewalks the
levels being started each time from estab
lishcd bench marks Existing water and
gas pipes can be located from plans al
ready made although they arc not drawn
exactly to scale and should be verified.
As the city has been partially severed
at various times, some of the sewers being
very old and others modern, about all of
which have been built according to ideas
Of the city government then in power, some
beng Dtlllt oil pflCk anu spUlc Oh Stpiic
and pipe, all these should be thoroughly
examined in regard to location, size, etc, so
that what already exists can be used to
advantage If need be
On detail maps should be laid in heavy
lines of strong color the whole system of
sewers with all the appurtenances such as
flush tanks, manholes, lampholes inspec-
tion pipes branches and inlet basins with
their connecting pipes A series of pro-
files showing the exact gIa le of the ir vert
of every sewer of the system, also the lines
of the surfaces shown by the preliminary
levels, should also be made.
AS our sewers are constructed on the
combined plan they should be large enough
to receive and carry away certain pro
portion of the storm water flowing on the
surface. together with all the industrial
waste product along the line of the streets
where they are laid Some of the disad
vantages of this system are that in order
to provide for the removal of the storm
water the sewers are made larger than
in requisite to enable them to carry of the
sewerage proper, thus having between the
intervals of the storm, a stream that
would be sufficient TO keep the sewer clear
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