The herald., 1896-07-17
Those Opening the Tract Paid
for the Street
OTHERS WANT BENEFITS
The Weekly Meeting ol the Council
Sewer Committee
Something New in the Way Of Covering the
Public Bridges
They Will Probably Hereafter Do Paved With
Asphalt snd Wooden BIocSs-rhe New
Specifications Of the Street SUI
perintendent-Notes

, perIntsndent-Not
An informal meeting of the board Of
public works was held yesterday after
noon. Chairman Munson was in attend
ance, as were also Councilmen Ashman.
| Stockwell and Kingery. The principal
| matter talked over was the opening Of
Park Grove avenue. from Twenty-tirst
| to Twenty-third streets. Park Grove
avenue is opened from Washington to
! Twenty-first street, and it Is now pro-
| posed to open the street to Twenty-third
| street. When this section was first
opened during the boom, Maj. w. H.
Bonsall and others interested in the
land, opened up these streets. and dedi-
Gated the land to the city. The cost to
the promoters was about $4,000. After
tho boom nothing further was done un-
til the electric railroad commenced rum
ming on Twenty-third street, and then
the scheme for the opening of Park
Grove avenue into the thoroughfare
was agitated. The matter was talked
up and the preliminary steps were taken.
Mr.. Kern owns the property through
which the street was to be opened. This
property is comparatively valueless for
subdivision unless the street, Park
Grove avenue. is opened through the
tract When the ordinance was drawn
up 1t was proposed to buy the land for
this street. and the assessments were
made accordingly. BY some oversight
the residents on Twenty-third street,
who would be benefited by the opening,
were not included in the assessment dis
trict, whereas. the property owners on
the opened street, between Twenty first
ana Washington streets, who were not
benef1ted. were included. This naturally
raised an inquiry. and when the matter
came before the council at the last meet
ing there was very vigorous protest.
Ex-City Attorney Mcfarland and Mai.
w. H. BonSall. former counc cilman from
the Third ward, were in attendance, and
as these gentlemen were interested in
the original opening of the street. con-
| siderable Importance was attached to
what they had to say. AS a result of
| their statements action was deferred for
| one week, 1t being understood that in
| the meantime the members of the board
| of public works would make personal
Investigation. 1t was stated that Mr..
Kerr. the owner of the property through
which it was proposed to open the street,
| would donate the necessary land, but
| this did not show up on the official or
| dinance Yesterday afternoon the mem
bers of the board went out and inspected
| the ground. accompanied by Maj. Bon
sail. The whole question will come up
at the meeting Of the board of public
works meeting this morning when a
final decision will probably be reached.
THE SEWER COMMITTEE
The sewer committee of the city coun-
ell yesterday held a short session, when
the following recommendations were
adopted for submission to the city coun-
Gil Monday:
Flrst-Recommerd that the protest of
I. Drown ct al, No. 565, against the
sewering of Second and Soto streets, be
denied.
Second-Recommend that all bids to
sewer Wilmer and other streets be re-
! jected and the clerk instructed to re-
| advertise, the city engineer having re-
| ported in the matter as follows:
ITO the Honorable Sewer Committee:
Gentlemen-I beg leave to report in the
matter of the sewer proposed to be built
on Wilmer, Sixth. Bixel and Fourth
streets, that after hurriedly figuring the
probable cost, [ estimate it at about
| so cents per foot complete. which would
| indicate that two of the contractors, to-
| wit; Thomas A. Grant and B. Lorenzi
omitted the cost of the fill to be made
from their estimate. Yours respectfully,
Per J. O. MARSH"
| COVERING THE PUBLIC BRIDGES
The covering OF the public bridges has
been source of considerable expense
| to the city There is a very heavy
| travel over both the First street and
| the Downey avenue viaducts, as we'll as
| the other main bridges of the city, and
! they have to be replanked almost every
year. At the last meeting of the coun-
oil lTr Ach H. %l.:-
! ard introduced a motion to the effect
| that the street superintendent should
| devise some means for covering bridges
| that was more durable than common
planking 1t was stated that In some
| cities cobble stones We're being used
| with good results, and the superintend-
ent of streets w9s instructed to prepare
| specifications for q pavement or cover
ing of the bridges that would at least
| do away with the annual planking.
| Chief Deputy Street Superintendent
Hutton and Mr.. Morse of the city engi-
neer's office have since been busy in
| getting up the necessary specifications
AS result of their investigations and
| experiments, a set of specifications for
an asphalt covering have been virtually
agreed upon. These Specifications, as
| agreed upon, are as follows:
First-Thoroughly clean the base
| boards of the surface to be covered and
| fill all cracks with wooden strips in such
a manner as to mako the surface to be
covered sufficiently tight to hold the hot
| asphalt td be applied.
Second-On this surface float to a
| thickness of Il of an inch hot asphalt
| prepared as specified below until the en-
| tire surface is covered and impervious
| to water.
Third-On this bed thoroughly sea-
soned wooden blocks of the following
sizes, 6 inches long, 2 or or inches
| wide and 21a inches deep, shall be laid
with grain vertical in the following man
ner: Each block must be dipped to at
least half its length in hot asphalt pre-
| pared as specified below, and immedi-
| ately placed in position, breaking joints,
| so that each block shall become firmly
united at the base to each other, and to
| the bed over this surface heated asphalt
| must be poured until all the interstices
are thoroughly filled and each block is
entirely incased in asphaltum. On this
surface when set another coating of
heated asphalt must be poured over the
entire surface and with it a coating of
| clean gravel or broken stone ranging
from the size of. a pea to that Of a pin s