The herald., 1897-03-24
THE MAIN STREET PAVEMENT
REJECTED

For the nrst time III tne nistoiS VI boS
Angeles a piece of street work has been
| rejected because 1t did not fulfill the
| requirements of the specifications. The
| fact that the work rejected is the largest
single contract for street work ever
awarded in the southern part of the
state make= this actionbf still greater
significance.
After one of the closest and most
searching Investigations on record, the
city council yesterday by unanimous
vote sustained the protests of the prop
erty owners against the action of the
street superintendent in accepting the
Main street pavement, and continued
the time for the completion of the work
until the first of July, in order to give the
contractor an opportunity to carry out
his contract according to the specifica-
tions. The specific grounds on which the
work was rejected was that the asphalt
wearing surface from Eleventh TO
Thirty-seventh streets was below the re-
ouirements of the specifications IN the
percentage of bitumen, that IT was below
the required uniform thickness or two
inches and that portion of the material
used was mixed in open kettles when the
snecifications called for mixing by
power. The two blocks from Ninth to
Eleventh street. which were paved with
a different material, were declared to be
satisfactory.
The history of this case has been re-
hearsed too often to require repetition.
Numerous analyses of all sorts
were made, some of which showed
that the material was above the
specified requirements. and others
below it, among the latter being
the official analysis made by order of the
council Pieces OF the asphalt were cut
out and measured some being less ana
others above the required two inches.
The protestants also claimed that the
concrete base was defective and the gut
ters and curbs not properly constructed,
but these were passed, and the final fight
was narrowed down to the asphalt.
The final hearing on this point was
concluded last evening. after two days
session. An eminent San Francisco
chemist, a specialist in asphalt, came
down and demonstrated the truth of his
ANALYSIS, and on this the protestants
stood. The contractors introduced a
large amount of testimony to endeavor
TO prove that the work was properly
done: well-known civil engineers and
practical asphalt workers maintained
that the pavement was fully satisfac-
tory. that it was mechanically iinpossi-
BILE to get an absolutely true surface OF
a uniform thickness of two inches, and
that the places in which it was in excess
should offset the places where it was too
thin. The council, however, stood on its
official ANALYSIS and rejected the work.
While this action of the council will
undoubtedly work a hardship on these
individual contractors, and it is unfor-
tunate for them that they should have
come to grief on their first piece of work,
the city will undoubtedly be the gamer
in the long run-that is, if the most
searching investigation is to be made the
invariable rule. There has undoubtedly
been entirely too much laxity in enforc-
ing the requirements of contracts for
public Improvements, by which the city
has suffered enormously. But IL the
council from this time forward intends
to see that every contract is thoroughly
carried out, and that any deviation will
result in the rejection of the work, the
| contractors for their own protection will
take pains to live up to the specfica-
| tions.
Specifications cannot be made too ex-
plicit, and the contractor will under
stand that nothing is left for tlm but TO
follow them to the letter. If this is done
the city will get better class of work,
| and there will be no further trouble.
l II l.