Evening star., 1901-07-30
FINEST OF THE KIND
Progress on the Government Print
ing Office.
WILL Be FINISHED IN 4 YEAR
A Stanch Structure, With Up
to-Date Appliances.
CAPT. SEWELL'S REPORT
CAPT. SEWELL'S REPORT

The new building for the government
printing office will be practically COM
pleted by July 1 next-at least SO far as
to permit the public printer to begin NOV
ing the machinery and employees into It.
Everything so far indicates that the
authorized limit Of cost. all Of which has
been appropriated, will be sufficient to fin
ish the building, with a small margin to
spare. The total appropriations on ac-
count of this building amount to 50, 429 600.
There has been expended to date in con-
struction 1855, ,159 The outstanding liabili-
ties are $119614, and the amount covered
by existing contracts Is $391, $50. The bal
ance available June 80 last was $962,6SS
These statements are made by Captain
John S. Sewell, Corps of Engineers. the
officer charged with the construction Of
the building, in a report to Colonel Mac
kenzie, the acting chief Of engineers. This
report gives a full and comprehensive his
tory of the operations on the building from
the beginning of the work up to the pres
ent time. 1t includes full descriptions Of
many important details of construction,
and shows that nothing has been left un-
done to make the building worthy Of the
national capital and the finest workshop
of it's kind in the world.
According to the approved project, the
structure is to be fireproof, with masonry
mainly of bricks; the interior to be finished
with glazed and pressed bricks; all door
and window frames to be of cast iron: the
floors to be designed for a live load OF 300
pounds per square foot, uniformly dis
tributed, to be thoroughly fireproof in all
structural features, but finished with about
1A inches of hardwood flooring, in all
places where the employees are required to
stand and work for any length of time
The building Is to be heated with steam
WI 3Ya6 fnr am al
interior telephone and alarm systems, and
furnished with all needful elevators
standpipes, water tanks and the best type
of sanitary plumbing Especial attention
has been paid to provision for safe and
speedy exit in case of fire or panic. and
for the health and comfort OF the employees
The main building has seven stories, a
basement and an attic, and In the project
the south end Of the power house Is divided
into two stories. There Is a vault for the
storage Of stereotype plates under the G
and North Capitol streets sidewalks, and
the basement of the main building extends
under the interior court and the driveways
An important change in the original pro-
ject consisted In making the south end of
the new power hOuse-the part over the
coal room-part of the main building. This
change necessitated a sallyport to enable
the driveway to debouch on G street.
Built on Sandy Soil.
Referring to the work Of excavating the
that the soil on which the new building
stands is mainly sand, with here and there
pockets of clay and with more or less
gravel everywhere. The ground water
stood In 1t at a level not much below that
of the basement floor at the southeast cor
ner and about three feet higher at the
northwest corner. This indicated that there
was a general movement Of this water
from the northwest to the southeast. a
fact made more probable by the existence
Of a large and deep pump sewer under
North Capitol street, draining to the south,
abundantly confirmed by subsequent OBJ
servatons. There was SO much water that
it was utterly impossible to dig the trench
es for the foundations without snoring
them solidly with sheet piling. The sand
would not stand vertically for a single
foot unless 1t was shored. For these rea-
sons snoring and underpinning make up
quite an item in the cost Of the founda-
ton. which will finish, however, says Capt
Sewell, within the original estimate Of cost
The concrete foundations consist of trun-
Gated pyramids under interior columns and
truncated wedges under the walls. They
are SO proportioned as to receive the full
load at all points, with pressure not ex-
ceeding twenty tons per square foot upon
sides slope SO as to spread the pressure
over sufficient area Of the sand below.
The depth Of the foundations was deter
mined SO that allowing q few inches depth
crete. inevitable next to the forms, line
Of pressure making an angle Of sixty de-
grees, with the horizontal, could be con-
tained entirely within the pier. The lower
part Of the pier was brought up above
grade in all cases at least foot, with YER
tical sides, before the slope began, SO as to
avoid a thin and weak toe. AS the base
ment Of the new building Is to be used for
the storage Of paper. every modern precau-
tion was taken to make 1t dry. Captain
Sewell says that up to date the waterproof
ing presents every evidence of being an
entire success. The contractors were re-
Quired, however, to guarantee 1t, under
bond, for five years.
Delay In the Steel Work.
The Phoenix Iron Company Of Philadel-
phia, which had the contract for the steel
work, evidently underestimated, says Cap
tain Sewell the time required to complete
SO large piece of work. Although the
company has been urged" says Captain
Sewell, "ir every way to greater efforts,
the erection is only just completed, and
the painting is not quite finished yet, The
delay In the steel work has not only re-
suited In the loss Of valuable time, but has
also suffered expenditures that would other
wise have been unnecessary. Contracts for
other materials were made on the assump-
tion that the steel would be on time. The
contractors for these other materials have
been practically on time and 1t has been
considerable expense, which might other
wise have been built In as fast as re-
ceived. Moreover, it has been necessary to
maintain Just as many overseers, clerks
ETC. Barring the delay and some vexa-
tious errors In stock work, which were
serious more for the time they consumed
In correction than for any other reason the
steel work Is of unusually high quality both
as to materials and workmanship
THE price at which the steel contract
was let resulted In considerable saving
on the steel frames but much of the cast
iron and special steel work, which was in
cluded in the general items OF steel work In
the estimates OF cost Of last year, and
many Of the purely architectural features
will exceed the amount they were esti-
mated to cost. and the saving on the steel
frame will just about compensate for the
increase in these items, with a small mar
gin to spare
Stiffness of the Building.
Although such building as the new
government printing office probably will
need no provision against wind pressure
when completed, 1t was deemed best to
provide for It. BY this means, even II the
wind never strains the bracing, yet all
vibrations due to machinery and any ten
dency Of horizontal movement of any kind
Will be distributed throughout the entire
structure and more effectually absorbed by
the greater mass thus made available.
A wind pressure of 30 pounds per square
foot was assumed all over the exposed
20 M 1paf1 1s1rp