The record-union., 1895-12-24
T5NTH-STREET MACADAM AGAIN.
City Trustees Listen to the Closing
Testimony.
They VIII Decide Whether to Accept
the Street or Not Next Mon
day Night.

The Tenth-street macadam matter
was taken up again in the Board OF
Trustees last night.
Antoine King, the contractor, testified
that the material was obtained by him
at the Cordelia Quarry, and that it was
put on the street as he received 1t
from the quarry. He picked up num-
Der of large stones like those shown by
Mr.. Avery, and dumped number OF
them in his yard and took them to other
places. He had dumped some of the
| fine stuff on the street. when he found
out that the property owners were COM
planning, and he stopped and sent for
Mr. Murray, the Street Superintendent,
and told him of the complaints. Mr..
Murray told him that the stuff was too
fine and directed him to remove it,
which he did. He threw some of the
large stones into the intersection of f
street, at the bottom He hauled no
cobbles on the street. He put the cob
bles shown on the street to steady the
Surveyors stakes.
c. L. White asked how witness came
to put on the street over 400 yards of
gravel more than the specifications
called for.
King answered that he did it in order
to make the street more rounding, and
Mr.. Murray told him to put it high
| enough ia be at the top of the stakes
after it was rolled Mr. Phinney told
him he would be allowed extra for the
surplus amount. Material always over
runs the specifications, and he had on
other occasions put on as much extra
material as he did this time and no one
had complained. The plans and specifi-
cations did not provide that he should
receive extra pay. He did not know
that the plans required him to bring the
street to a true convex arch.
He said at first that he rounded the
sub-grade according to the specifica-
tions, but when Mr. White asked, if that
was the case how it came that it needed
more macadam than was called for to
round the upper stratum, he was not
sure that he rounded the sub-grade, but
thought that he made it fiat or nearly
so. He put the material on under the
direction of Superintendent of Streets
Murray, who told him to put on more
gravel to round the street He rolled
the street thoroughly, both sub-grade
ana top stratum. He waited four days
at MT Crocker's request, to see if the
poard would say whether it was salts
ned or dissatisfied with the work He
old not know the fine stuff was not ac-
cording to the specifications The prop
erty-owners bothered him to death
while he was fixing it.
Mr.. White asked the witness when
he put the last macadam on the street.
but Platnauer, his counsel, objected.
Mr. White then produced a copy of the
resolution introduced by Lawton and
passed by the board on September 18th,
which sets forth that the street was
not being constructed in accordance
with the specifications and directing
the Superintendent of Streets not to
accept the street, on the ground that
the macadam was not good material
The question was allowed, but no in
formation was gained.
Street Superintendent Murray said,
IN response to a question by Devine,
that he accepted the street because he
thought it a good one He thought it
was as good as any in the city He
had been informed that the property
owners intended to fight the acceptance
of the street, no matter how well it
was constructed He had not been
asked by the property owners not to
accept the street, he said, but in an
swer to a question by Mr.. Bragg, he
remembered that the latter had asked
him not to accept it. He did not re-
member when he accepted the street.
When the resolution was passed by the
board he had some of the fine stuff
taken off the street. He thought the
street was as good as M street, be-
tween Twentieth and Twenty second.
e. A. Burr was put on the stand in
rebuttal in reference to M street, and
Platnauer objected, as his witnesses
had not been asked concerning NJ street.
Mr. White said Platnauer had in
stituted comparisons between Tenth
street and every other macadam street
in the city except NJ. That street was
constructed in exact compliance with
the same specifications as Tenth street.
1t was built four years ago and is in
as good condition to-day as when built
while Eleventh street, which was built
only last fall, is already full of chuck
holes according to the testimony of
Contractor Labs. He would like to in
troduce witness in relation to it.
necessary to go into that matter and
the matter was ruled out
Mr.. White opened the argument by
reminding the board that they were sit
ting as a jury and under oath Every
one of them, he said, knew that the
specifications had not been complied
with To uphold this mans work would
be to say that specifications in street
work did not mean anything and were
only of use to pull the wool over the
property-owners' eyes. Then there was
the enormous amount of extra material,
over 81, 100 more than the estimate.
Mr. Platnauer said he did not wish to
argue the question.
The question then came on the ac-
ceptance of the street.
Tozer said he did not think that a
good street could be constructed with
out the use of the stone dust, but he
would not vote to accept the street until
the extra material was struck from the
bill.
Leonard said that he had always un-
derstood that no dust was wanted in
order to make a good macadam street.
He did not feel like voting on accepting
this street until he had examined the
| specifications of the Bureau of High
ways He did not propose, either, to
vote for the property y-owners to pay for
the extra material, out of sympathy for
a man who did not comply with the
specifications. He had seen fine ma
cadam road built in South America, but
| there was no dust used in it.
Devine thought the world had pro-
| gressed since the days of Macadam, and
knew more about building roads now.
He believed that the use of dust would