The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-22
THE WILLOW STREET BRIDGE
INTESTIG1TIONB BY SPECIAL CON-
 MITTEE BEGUN LAST NIGHT.

MITTEE BEGUN LAST NIGHT.
 Ex-Director Eeechcr, City Clerk Norris.
 City Engineer Kelly and Capt. Law renee O'Brien Sworn as Vitnesscs-- Some ofthe Facts Brought Out tn tho Testimony-More Witnesses Subpoe- naed Whose Names Arc Withheld. The special meeting of the court of | common council appointed to look into
 the circumstances attending the build
 ing of the Willow street bridge or so
 much of it as is completed held it's first hearing last night. There have
 been several cave-ins at the bridge and
 some of the piling has been thereby
 displaced In addition to this the
 bridge is left in an incomplete condi-
 tion the appropriation having been
 exhausted. The investigation is being
 held to ascertain why the bridge was
 not completed within the appropriation,
 which was estimated by the proper of-
 ficials to be sufficient. The witnesses
 OQDl)otlelttu lotSL IliSul WClG tA-DIlGC-
 tor of Public Works Beecher, City En-
 gineer Kelly, City Clerk Norris and
 Captain Lawrence O'Brien, the contrac-
 tor who did the filling-in work at the
 bridge. The oath was administered to
 these gentlemen by Assistant City Clerk
 Martin. Corporation Counsel Robertson
 and Director Troup Of the department
 of public works were present City
 Clerk Norris was the first witness ex-
 amined. He presented records to show
 when the orders for the construction
 of the bridge were passed and the rec
 ord of the passage of the resolution au-
 thorizing the issue of $10,O0O worth of
 bridge bonds to pay for the construc-
 tion of the bridge.
 EX-Drector Beecher was next called.
 In answer to questions by members of
 the committee he said that at no time
 during his term of office had he exer- cised any personal supervision over such works as was performed on Will low street bridge. It was his duty to accept the work, and he did accept it, and inspected it so far as it was his duty to do so. He said that no one ever knew the cause of the filline ma teral sliding away from the piling as it happened in the night All the bills for the bridge came to him over City Engineer Kelly's signature and the books show how much had been paid to contractors up to July 1 last. Up to the time he went out of office he had heard no complaints about the depart ment overdrawing it's appropriation for the bridge, and he didn't believe that hn ar .Yapio tifA,, although he admitted that he himself had begun to grow suspicious when he saw everything going out of sight" Personally he knew nothing about the amount of material that was put in for filling at the bridge. About July i last he examined the west piling and found it all right. No filing had been put on the west side then. In reply to Corporation Counsel Robertson he said that he had not examined the survey before the work was begun and that he had made no estimate as to what the 1 bridge would cost and did not know the amount of money expended on the | bridge up to the time he went out of l office. He thought that before July 1 some of the filling slid into the river | and broke out four or five piles. He said that this was caused because the | dirt wouldn't lay on the rock with the | water washing it out. He didn't know | the cost of fixing up that damage but | knew that it was not large. Contractor | BraZos had begun work on the filling | some time before the accident happen | ed. He had never heard that the acci- | dentwas caused by Mir Brazos dump ing dirt from the bridge. He couldn't | say when the bridge was accepted, but | it was during his term Of office. The 1 accident happened after the bridge was accepted
 City Engineer Kelly was the next wit ness. He said that he drew the plans for the bridge. He did not think that it was the fault of the contractor that the road at the west end of the bridge was not completed. He knew that the appropriation for the bridge was s1O. GOO and believed that that sum would be sufficient to carry the road across the meadow but not for the full width Of the street and he also had believed that the amount needed would depend on how much the filling settled He would now prepare the same plans and make the same estimates if he had no more knowledge or the conditions than he had then and did not think that he could obtain any more knowledge of the conditions now than he could then.
 MT. Kelly said that the bridge was built according to plans and specified tions, but that unsuspected conditions had been found, such as soft bottom He had not told the contractor that piles need not be driven into a hard bottom and if the contractor had failed to drive them to hard bottom he had done so on his own responsibility So far as the bridge itself was concerned he was not afraid to drive over it with a horse and buggy He thought that tt would cost $S,000 to finish the work according to plans and specifications, including the cost of necessary re- pairs. He said that this important diff ference from his original estimate was caused by the unexpected settling of the of the piling.
 He said that the total cost of the filling already done was 2 little 'ess han $6,000, while the bridge proper cost S3 924.50 including repairs for accidents, L4791 cubic yards of filling had been 1opa did mt think ba 1