The San Francisco call., 1898-08-20
Skimping on Material and Labor.
CONTRACTS BEING VIOLATED
INSUFFICIENT CEMENT AND
 DIRTY SAND.
Some Important Discoveries Have Been Made by The Calls Ex- pert Investigating the
 Work.

The 1rnpunity with which contractors disregard specifications in dolng Worh for the city finds striking illustration fin the method of repaving Market street now in progress. The Clty street 1ln- , provement Company, which has this con- tract in hand is daily violating the agree ment made with the city under bond, 10 do the work on certain specified lines. Sc open and fragrant is the disregard, both of the letter and the spirit or the con tract that any citizen with his eyes open cannot fail to ascertain the facts after brief personal inspection. The contract = ors are saving on the material and work provided for under the contract and the result will be an inferior pavement on the . most important business street in San : The Cal has had an expert at work for several days, going over the street and looking into the matter. If the city in spector Mir Turner, is carefully super vlsng the construction, the fact, so lar,
 The cal proposes to present the facts for the benefit of citizens generally, and incidentally for the enlightenment of the committee on streets of the Board or Supervisors.
 The Calls s representative selected DOT ton of Market street lying between New Montgomery and Second street. Accorq- ing to exact measurements there snoulQ have been laid on 172X17 feet Of that block 2l93 cubic feet of concrete. A most HDerai interpretation of the specifications would require the use of seVenty-tnree parrelS of cement eighty-One cubic yards or rock and twenty-three cubic yards or sand III laying the section of pavement III ques-
 Now the actual amount used, according to the investigations of The Calls expert, was sixty barrels of cement, stXty-eight cubic yards of rock and twenty-tour cu- bic yards of sand.
 The concrete foundation was to be nine inches in thickness when finished. The work was however, short fourteen cubic yards of rock, while thirteen missing bar rels of cement are also to be charged up to the profits of the contractor.
 In the mixing of the concrete in some instances enough water was sprinkled over the mixture to wash most Of the ce- ment into the sub-foundations. At other .. times not enough water was put on to wet the cement so that it would adhere to The sand that was used was far from clean. It was yellow in color, showing the, presence of clay and lOam in large :drantities. thereby making it unfit for use as cement will not adhere to clay or Ioain. A most aggravated ease o1 ms cement over the surface Of the damp con, crete after IL had been lightly tamped into place with ten-pound hand tampeTs This made showing on the surface Tor the benefit of spectators.
 The specifications provided for the roll ing of the sub-fOundatiOn with a fiYe-ton 'ro-.er, or where impracticable to do that. eighty-pOund tampers or a hand-roller .wete to be used. This proviso was dfsre- ] Tnlled or tamped, more concrete would have been needed.
 The specifications forbid the use of wet or dry steam. or the application of direct heat from flames in preparing bitumen for use on the street Yet the contractors did heat the material by injecting wet steam into 1t. This practice can be ob- served any day.
 Again. the specifications provide that the surface coating of bitumen shall, af ter proper compression by a roller weigh ing 250 pounds to the inch run, have uniform thickness of two and one-half inches. Furthermore, tests are to be con tinually made by the inspector, using gauge. This official 1t is noticed, gauged the bitumen before it received ultimate compression. As a result the layer is from two to two and one-Quarter inches thick. Bltumen loses one-fifth by com pressiop.
 The fact that the contractors made low bids of $2S 900 all told for the repairing work cannot excuse the failure to live up to the contract.
 1t is figured that along the entire street the saving on materials, If carried on evenly, in proportion to the saving on the : block investigated, will reach the value of .$5000 which represents a clear profit to which the contractor cannot claim that he is entitled. The worst feature of the whole affair Is that the Market street pavement is being constructed in an in- ferior manner and will. when finished be but another sample of the bad paving jobs which have disgraced the city.