The San Francisco call., 1896-01-03
The Hand of the Solid Eight in
Van Ness Avenue Street
Work.
EXPERT GADEN CONDEMNS IT.
BituminouS Road Covering Picked
From the Street With the
Naked Fingers.

AT the next meeting of the Board of Su-
pervisors the Jordan Bituminous Rock
and Paving Company will file a formal
protest against the payment of $1627 II to
the City Street improvement Company,
this sum being the City's proportion of the
cost of paving Van Ness avenue, between
Suffer and Bush streets, with bituminous
rock The protest will claim that the let
ting of the contract was illegal in that
competition was not invited as required by
law, and the recent decision of Judge Sea-
well Ill the mandamus proceedings of the
Santa Cruz Rock Paving Company against
Auditor Broderick will be cited in support
OF the contention.
The resolution authorizing the payment
OF the Street Improvement Company's
claim was passed to print at the last meet
ing of the board. At the same session J.
w. Mcdonald, manager of the corporation,
protested against the acceptance OF the
pavement on Twenty-fourth street, be-
tween Howard and Mission, which was
laid by rival concern, the Jordan Btu
minous Rock and Paving Company, the
protest alleging that the bitumen was only
an inch aud a half thick and that 1t had
not been properly rolled.
A scrutiny of the facts back of these two
DdDSIS Su6QS 1lSuI UPON the ne
farious methods of the Solid Eight in the
Board of Supervisors.
The protested block on TWenty-fourth
street was completed by the Jordan COM
pany more than three months ago, and
that corporation has since then Iabored in
vain to get it accepted by the Supervisors.
The work was done at the time that the
Jordan company was in the thickest of its
fight against the Solid Eight over the
specifications for street work, which that
infamous combine carried despite the
Mayors veto, and which created a mo-
nopoly for the Santa Cruz rock. This
being the case, the Jordan corporation was
exceedingly careful to do good work, sus-
pecting that the least flaw would result in
its condemnation.
Upon the receipt of Mr.. McDonaId's pro-
test George I. Gaden, the Mayors expert,
was ordered TO examine the protested
block. He dug into the pavement in four
places and found in each place that the
bituminous rock instead of being an inch
and a half thick was at least two and
three-quarters inches, and in some places it
measured three inches in thickness,
though the requirement of the specifica-
tions was only two and a half inches.
On the other hand the paving of the
Van Ness avenue block was completed
barely three weeks ago. The contract for
the work was illegally donated by the
Solid Eight to the City Street Improvement
Company, as noted by THE CALL at the
time, and the work was done under the
new specifications, Santa Cruz rock being
the material used.
The work has been officially approved
by Superintendent OF Streets Ashworth,
but despite its recent completion the
street is in a deplorable condition and
| the pavement is absolutely valueless. The
rock is extremely brittle and appears
to be wanting in cohesive elements. Fieces
of the pavement may be picked from the
! roadway with the fingers. An umbrella
may be easily forced through the bitumin-
GUS covering and walking stick piled by
man of ordinary strength plows great
furrows in the surface.
George L. Gaden, the Mayors expert on
street work, has given both the Twenty
fourth street and the Vap Ness avenue
pavements thorough examination, and
when seen last night expressed his opinion
in no uncertain way.
"On Twenty-fourth street, he said, az
found the utmost difficulty in cutting into
the pavement at all. 1t had been rolled so
hard that when we tried to pierce it with
pickax the tool rebounded as from so
much stone. And when we did finally
succeed in getting through the covering
we found the bitumen from 23l TO inches
thick.
1.-The Van Ness avenue pavement-that
| is, the portion between Sutter and Bush
streets-is absolutely the worst piece of
work ever saw. l received it on the 30th
! ult., and had no difficulty in kicking
pieces of it loose or in running my UNI
brella through the bitumen. Mr.. Elder ac-
companied me on that occasion. We saw
pieces OF the pavement picked UP by hand,
and it appeared to have absolutely no con-
sistency. Mr.. Elder had approved the
work previously, but he now agrees with
me that 1t is utterly valueless."