The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-12-06
MR.. FOWLER'S CRUSADE
Chief Engineer After DeliD-
quent Contractors With
a Very Sharp Stick.
PINE ST. IMPROVEMENT FAULTY
Scheme to Drain Effectively the
Jackson and Monticello Ave-
nue. Districts ssent to the
Street and Water Board.
PINE ST. IMPROVEMENT FAULTY

Two very important communications
from Chief Engineer Fowler were received
by the Street and Water Commissioners
at their meeting this afternoon. One of
these will be 4 matter of extreme interest
to residents in the Jackson and Monticello
avenues district For many years after
severe rainfall certain streets in that
thiekly populated district have been
flooded and much damage to property has
ensued. Jackson avenue has been Hooded
from end to end. and those who wished to
cross it had to be ferried across, carried
over or wade over the knees. Such
state of things existed not many months
ago. Chief Engineer Fowler has paid
much attention to the matter, and to solve
the problem he proposed to build a re-
lieving sewer draining the Monticello dis
trict, and thus preventing any backing up
on the present sewer. The plan is fully
set forth in the following letter.
To the Hon. Board of Street and Water
Commissioners
centlemen-I beg to submit to your
honorable 1ody the following facts in re-
gard to the proposed reconstruction OF
the trunk line sewer, in the jackson
avenue district, from Bramhall avenue to
Communipaw avenue; thence through
Communipaw avenue to Monticello ave-
This trunk line sewer. since its con-
struction, about 1870, has been incapable
of performing the duty required of it,
even in moderate storms of short dura-
ton. Surveys and levels recently taken
show that the said sewer, which is con-
structed of brick and is 36 inches in di-
ameter, has practically no fall between
Bramhall avenue and Communipaw ave-
nue., and therefore always has been
menace to the entire neighborhood en-
braced in its drainage district.
-- r~a1 tA
by the city for enlarging and reconstruct
ing the said trunk line sewer in jack
son and Communipaw avenues, between
Bramhall and Monticello avenues, where
by the diameter of said sewer will be
increased from 36 inches to AZ inches, or
an even fall of about four-tenths of a
foot to every one hundred feet for the
entire distance. By this plan 1t was sup
posed that the defects heretofore set out
would be eliminated and the sewer as
recons structed and enlarged would have
sufficient capacity and fall to carry away
all the sewerage and the surface water
from the heaviest storm. This Suppo-
sition would be correct il the 42-inch
sewer was the only sewer to be con-
sidered, but unfortunately it is not. AT
the junction of Monticello avenue and
Communipaw avenue, on the north, a &C.
inch sewer with drainage area of about
forty-five acres, joins the Communipaw
avenue sewer while from the south a
24-inch sewer, with q small drainage
area, also joins the CommunipaW ave-
nue. sewer at the same point. To carry
this merging volume of sewerage, aggre-
eating a total of 26,50000O gallons per
day (assuming the sewers to run two
thirds full), we have the present sewer
in Communipaw avenue, from Monticello
avenue to Crescent avenue, with an aver
age effective fall for about 200 feet of
only one to two-tenths per hundred feet.
The capacity of this 4s-lnch sewer, as
Stunning it to run two-thirds full, is about
49, 900 900 gallons. Thus we have an ag-
gregate merged volume of 265Oo,0O0 gal
Ions per day to be carried by sewer
with a capacity of l9000,O0O gallons per
day Therefore, in order to relieve the
4S-inch sewer in Communipaw avenue and
properly drain the Monticello avenue
Sewerage district and still preserve the
contract about to be entered into as afore-
said recommend the following, viz
The construction of relief sewer in
Harrison avenue, from Monticello ave-
nue. to point about 100 feet west of Park
street. said relief sewer to be connected
with the Monticello avenue sewer both
north and south, and to connect with the
Communipaw avenue sewer in the south,
at the most suitable point as regards
fall This plan will take directly from
the Communipaw avenue sewer the drain
age area of the Monticello avenue dis
trict, amounting to about forty-fye acres
aforesaid, and will also relieve the jack
son avenue and Communipaw avenue
sewer by a 24-inch relief connection, all
as shown severally on plans herewith
submitted.
j have advised with City Attorney
Douglass as to the law under which this
relief sewer may be built, and he is of
the opinion that it can be constructed un-
der Chapter 217 of the Laws of 1895.
In connection with this communication
1 submit map and profiles embracing the
subject.
(Signed L. D. FOWLER
The other communication will undoubt-
edly send a close shiver up the backs of
lazy contractors, Mr.. Fowler means to
make every man with contract from the
city carry out the letter and spirit of that
agreement, or he'll know the reason why
One gentleman, who has evidently mistak-
en- the terms of the contract he entered
into for the improvement of Pine street,
from Pine street to the Newark and New
York Railroad tracks. was the burden OF
this complaint
To the Honorable the Board of Street
and Water Commissioners of Jersey
City.
Gentlemen respectfully call the atten-
tion of your honorable body to the i'm
provement of Pine street, between Com
munipaw avenue and the right of way Of
the Newark and New York Railroad 8
the contract for which was executed on
October IL, of the present year, and the
work therein required to be done, being
in process of completion, and under the
third provision of the said contract do
hereby certify that the work aforesaid is
unnecessarily delayed and that the said
contractor is executing his contract in
bad faith and is wilfully violating certain
conditions of the specifications forming a
part thereof, and do further certify that
the violatio as aforesaid are as follows,
to witt
First-The contractor has not given his
personal attention to the fulfillment OF
the contract and has sub-let the work re-
quired to be done hereunder, all in direct
violation of the third provision of the con-
tract
Second-The contractor has placed the
paving blocks on the sidewalks along the
line of the Improvement for almost the
entire length thereof and has piled the
they do not allow a free passageway along
said sidewalks, all in direct violation of
the third provision of the contract and
the seventh requirement of that part of
the specifications relating to stone paving.
Third-The contractor has not prose-
cuted the work under his contract with
due diligence and has already consumed
over thirty (30) working Gays from the
date of the commencement of his labors,
only partially completed, whereas by the
second and sixth provisions of the con-
tract the Improvement should be. entirely
completed within thirty (30) working days
Fourth-The paving stones furnished by
the contractor do not conform to the first
requirement of that part of The specifica-
tions 8relating to stone paving in that
large per cent. thereof are. culls, being
very irregular in shape. understood and
scribed in said first requirement..
Fifth-The contractor has been repeated
" directed by the Chief Engineer and by
the surveyor in charge and by the inspec-