The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-09-22
LEHIGHS new EFFORT
Another Crossing ordinance
introduced at the Street
and Water Board
Meeting.
ADDITIONAL PRECAUTIONS IN 1T
Company Consents to Provide
Underground Passenger
Tunnels.
ADDITIONAL PRECAUTIONS IN 1T

There were q dozen or more Lafayette
property owners at the meeting of the
Street and Water Board today, who
wished to say something favorable con-
corning the proposed crossing of Com
munipaw avenue at grade by the Green
willie and Hudson branch of the Lehigh
Valley Railroad.
Reon Barnes, the company's agent, was
not on hand, having become somewhat
discouraged, it is said, by his failure TO
secure the crossing when it came up last
time. Since Engineers Edlow Harrison
and w. w. Ruggles have reported that
it is Impossible for the compa to reach
its terminal yards except by the crossing
at grade, there has been a change of sem
timent in the Lafayette section, and it
has been made apparent. the Commission
ers say, that the people do not want to
shut out the company entirely.
The proposition of Engineer Harrison
that the company should place passen-
ger tunnels under the tracks al the point
of crossing has already been aceuiesced
in by the company, and In a letter to the
Board Agent Barnes has requested per-
mission to remove from the foot of John
ston avenue all the tracks the COMPANY
is operating there, repave the street and
~ hAN ! LIZ "a ,
nave demanded, the cost of which will
reach about $1o,000 COMMISSIONS Hard
Ing was IN possession OF a letter from
Mr.. Barnes today showing that the COM
pany, to avoid a clash with the officials
Ct any time, had expended many thous-
ands of dollars to elevate its road through
portions of the city where a surface road
could have been constructed at a nominal
cost.
While the proposed crossing was being
discussed Clerk Bouton was handed the
following letter from Agent Barnes
To the Honorable the Board of Street and
Water Commissioners of Jersey City,
The petition of the Greenville and Hud-
son Railway Company respectfully shows
that 1t has. located and partially con-
structed its line of elevated railway in
accordance with such location through a
part OF jersey City.
That it's located line crosses Communf-
paw avenue at the grade of said avenue
at APPOINT beneath the underneath cross
ing OF the Central Railroad of New Jer-
sey on the eastsand the junction of Suy-
the west.
That its railway lines constructed and
70 pc constructed by your petitioner is at
al other points an elevated STRUCTURE,
ci0sslng overhead the tracks of the New
ark and New York Railroad, the Central
Railroad of New Jersey and all other
railroads., avenues and streets, and that it
IS such elevated construction which makes
1t necessary to cross Comnaunipaw avenue
at grade. There is no other feasible
nIethod whereby your petitioner can from
sey City.
Your petitioner has already become the
owner Of all the lands on both sides Of
avenue upon which It is
intended to construct its tracks
your petitioner further respectfully
spo#s that 1t has, at the instance of the
Gty, satisfied all property owners on
avenue with a single ex-
cepticn who might properly be deenoed
as eelng injuriously affected by such pro-
posed crossing.
ed your Honorable Board to procure snd
aVan itself of the Services and reporf IF
s saf eminent civil engineers as would be
strumentauy examining the nremiseo ana NJ
the determining Of all questions (ef an
engineering oharacter) involved or peril
grade by the tracks of the said railwav
company; the expense ana cost of si,eh
professional services to be borne wholly
by your petitioner. ~
The invitation of your petitioner wos
accepted and acted upon, and reports by
eminent civil engineers were made to and
adopted by your Honorable
Your petitioner respectfully prays that
your Honorable Board will pass an ordi-
nance granting to you petitioner, under
ofable Body may fix, the right to cross
Senmunipaw, avenue at grade with your
peiitlonerS tracks, and your petitioner
viii ever pray, etc.
Dated September 81, 1896.
THE GREENVIELE AND
RAILWAY COMPANY.
By REON BARNES, Agent.
The request was referred to the Com
mittee of the Whole.
Subsequently. and under the head of
miscellaneous business, a new ordinance
granting the compan the relief it de-
sires, was introduced. In it the company
is to keep. the crossing, particularly the
roadway, in perfect order, place gates at
either side. and staten guards there so as
to make accidents an impossibility. The
only new provision of the ordinance is
one which saddles upon the company adj
ditional expense. If granted permission
to cross the avenue it must pay all the
costs of advertising the ordinance. pub
lie hearings and so on. The ordinance
was laid over, under the rules, for one
week.
AT next Tuesdays meeting people who
are still opposed to the crossing will be
given a hearing. The company. it is said.
viii make no further appeal through
counsel for what Agent Barnes a it
is rightfully entitled to, under agreements
made with the city's representatives when
the construction of the line was first be-
gun.
mn WITHIN HnI QNpEEn