The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-27

ings was put into effect Aug. 80, and
up to Dec. l, 1045 permits had been is
sued, 1132 openings made and 6S,971
feet, or 1906 miles of trench dug up.
General repairs on streets, roads, ave-
nues, lanes, courts, and so forth, have
cost s25,555.22; permanent repairs, s19,-
1878; brick crosswalks $45S0.04; bridge
work. S65L74;~, crosswaIk repairs,
s545.33
In closing his report, Mr.. Prior says:
THE department has done more work
and better work during the year just
passed than in any previous year in its
history. During the first few months
of the year, the department was called
upon to an unprece dented amount of
snow work, which was followed by a
large volume of work in all lines, espe-
cially in new sidewalks, new macadam
and street construction. The finan
Cial year was ushered in with the ex-
tremely heavy snow storms of Nov.
&c and 81, followed later in the winter
by two other storms of about the same
magnitude, each oil which cost this de-
partment nearly $4,000, running the to-
tai cost of snow up to $40, The
expense of caring for snow in 1898 was
s11, 1880, which was an unusually high
cost while in 1897, with normal condi-
tons, the expense was only S6110,95. In
snow removal, this department ex-
PENDED s31S4.54 in removing snow for
theWorcester Consolidated Street Rail-
way Company, which was charged to
that company direct, but which as yet
HAS NOT BEEN PAID.
So that this department has paid s22,-
1923 out of its annual appropriation
the past year on account of snow,
which is an extremely heavy draft on
a comparatively small appropriation.
The street railway act Of 1898 relieved
the street railway companies of large
proportion Of what they had previous
ly been required to do toward the re-
moval of snow from city streets, and
the expense to the city is correspond
ingly increased.
More miles of sidewalk have been con
structed this year than ever before and
more granolithic than in all previous
years. Our granolithic walks are built
by contract, under the best of specifica-
tons, and under the direction Of street
department inspector so that the re-
suits are most satisfactory. The speci-
fications call for not less than fourteen
90 inches of gravel and cinder foun-
dalton with four "a inches Of concrete
and one inch of top. Quite a large per
cent of the petitioners of 1899 have
asked for granolithic With few excep-
lions, and those where the walks are
laid out too narrow to permit, the gran
olithic walks are constructed with a
grass plot between the walk and curb
ing, giving very pleasing effect, and
leaving room for necessary poles, posts,
shade trees, hydrants, etc, that can be
mn lob
the walk The total mileage of side
walks for the year is 664 miles, 1.19 of
which is granolithic and 5.45 is brick,
making total mileage in the city to
date of 1913 brick, 2.22 Of granolithic,
e.91 of tar concrete. so, 500 square yards
of macadam or 6.54 miles, have been
built at an expense of so per square
yard for new work and .28 for resurfac-
ing. This is more macadam than the de-
partment has ever before put down in
any one year. It was found early last
year that the old method pursued by
this department of building macadam
roads was too expensive, which method
was more lack of method and system
than anything else. At the beginning of
this season radical change was made
and an inspector put on to look after
all macadam work, and whose chief duty
it was to see that each spreader spread,
tiagman tagged and roller rolled, with
the very gratifying results that the
average cost per square yard was re-
duced from II cents for 1897 and 1898
to so cents per square yard, for 1899, or
a saving of nearly $4,000 on the amount
of work done this year compared with
results under the old system. We hope
to reduce this figure a few points next
year. The
TOTAL COST OF MACADAM WORK
paid out of maintenance appropriation
is $3O,S79.95.
An unusually large number of new
streets, seventeen in all, have been con-
structed, a few of which were quite
expensive. The speedway was the larg-
est single job of the year, followed by
Hunts corner Strengthening and wild
ening, Commercial and Grove streets.
In all, SAG. 109.96 has been expended on
account of new streets. The Hunt cor
ner joO was anticipated work of an
old layout and this paid for out of
maintenance funds. 1t is more prop
erly classified under permanent repairs,
the total cost of which to date is S19-
1873. This is the last of several large
jobs that have been taken care of dur
ing the last two years that had been
in the habit of receiving an annual de-
bate and fresh estimate for quite a Sc
ries of years. Having these old matters
satisfactorily disposed of, I trust we
may be able to apply portion of our
energy and money in the immediate fu-
ture towards the much needed improve
ment of Main street paving. I hope we
may expend 100000 in sight of city
hall the coming year.
Two excellent jobs of granite block
paving, with concrete base, and, ce-
ment grouted Joints have been. done
this year. Thirty-fve hundred and
ninety seven yards were laid on Vernon
street at a cost of $2.509 per square
yards and 1880 yards on Millbury
street at cost Of s2.652 per yard. The
city engineers estimates were 1872 per
yard on each of these Jobs, and no work
of the kind has been done in this city
heretoAore at less than that figure. This
department has done work this year
at the lowest cost that we have any
record of. We expect to reduce the fig
ures more yet. Much of this reduction
is due to the fact we do not spend our
time
SMIRKING, LOAFING OR TALKING,
as has been our reputation in years
past. Ir fact, our best orators have sew
cred their connection with US already.
We ask for the privilege of laying
more paving. In the end it is more
economical.
Street sweeping and cleaning has
been conducted in the same manner as
last year, most of the cleaning being
done by the six section gangs. Street
sweeping for the year cost $7731.S1 and
1899 loads of sweepings collected and
taken to dumps. 11.05 nilec of paving
our total mileage was swept three (3)
times a week, and four a. miles four
"a times a week in fair weather. The
cost OF street cleaning is ST, 397.34 and
u, 345 loads collected and taken to