The herald., 1898-04-13
Looking Into Our Street Paving

Looking Into Our Street Paving
To the Editor of the Los Angeles Herald ;
The recent excavations along Spring aud
Main streets have shown the construction
of the pavements on these streets and the
methods Of repair of the contractors fo-
the corporations that have previously
made cuts and repairs In them. An ex-
animation Of this evidence on the paving
and repair has been made by citizens ana
by experts.
The facts demonstrated are: First, only
restricted sections Of Main and Spring
streets were originally paved according to
the specifications of the contract. These
sections center about Third street. At this
point on both streets the six-inch cement
concrete foundation was laid. The streets
over this good and lawful foundation were
in sound condition except as to the places
cut into and imperfectly repaired by the
gas, water and railroad companies. On
both sides of Third and after passing Sec.
ond to the north on Spring the foundation
is found to be extremely defective. Going
south on Spring and Main, after passing
Fourth, the foundation radically departs
from the specifications. The depth, In
stead Of six inches, falls from four to one
and one-half inches. and averages two and
one-half inches The small amount OF ce-
meat in this work was applied In thin
surface over the gravel. On one block on
South Main the average depth Is about
two inches and is without a trace Of cs-
ment. In the small district where there
was cement concrete foundation the re-
cent cuts had to be made with gads, and
the foundation came up in blocks. South
of Fourth the foundation disintegrates in
the fingers and required easy picking ir
cutting, and sometimes only a shovel was
used. In other words the major portion Of
this paving contract was shirkedi to the
extent of thousands Of dollars. The prop
erty holders, however. paid the full price
through the acceptance Of the defective
work by the city officers.
Second-All the repair work by the cor
porations cutting in this work has been
found to be without pretense at fulfill-
ing the legal specifications. In some cases
the broken rubbIe has been in part re-
placed in loose form and In other cases the
asphalt repair work is laid on the plain
dirt. There can be little surprise that such
work breaks down into chuck holes and
sinks.
Considerable, If not ALL the asphalt IN the
repair work is also found to be defective
and of different character and quality to
that originally laid. A great deal Of the
repair work recently and now being doEe
partakes of the same costly defects. A
great deal of the ditch work has been re-
filled without adequate tamping and n
but few instances has the foundation
been properly replaced, and in number of
cases no foundation has been put in.
The special interest at the present time
of this old work is due to the fact that
the prominent man in that contract is the
prominent party in the present Alcatraz
company now holding a practical, monop-
oily of all our heavy city paving work, and
that the foreman of this defective job
is the present city superintendent of
streets. The outlook for the contractors
must be presumed to be good. The out
look for the citizens who are to pay for
the work and for the citizens who are 20
use 1t is bad. x.