The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-12
WATCH on DOWNTOWN DITCH.
BROADWAY BUSINESS MEN WILL
TAKE 40 CHANCES.
,c,,,.. W,Iow the Pest Onice Hire nm Ensi-
neer 10 See That the Vague Contract
IL Lived Up TO-UptOwn Workers
mont Propose to Get In the Same Fix.

Ia Lived Up TO-UptOwn Workers
Don,t Propose to Get In the Same Fix.
norrtv Comptroller N. Taylor Phillips,
-.ho owns some property on Long Acre
SQUARE. has joined the organization OF
,,Tuiness men to fight ditch in Broadway
lotween Forty-second street and Four
,oo,th ,tceet. Mr.. Phillips also has prop
ort,, interests at Broadway and Thirty
-oy.nth street, but he IL opposed to the
,r,ch plan as much because he believes
,bot his interests above Forty-second street
,.Il suffer if the street ia TO be disturbed
Gar three wears while the subway Ia being
built
Personally, ] believe the subway ought
"a 30 through Seventh avenue said Mr..
phiIns. THAT would be convenient to
Broadway and there the tunnel could be
built without interfering with Broadway,
which that section is never out OF public
Use even for an hour.
"rhe business interests of Broadway
cannot aHord to depend on the promises
e contractors or of the Rapid Transit
commission. When the first subway con-
tract was let it contained clause that
streets should not be closed to traffic. In
Broadway at Seventy-second street. near
nv home, the street was closed to all but
street car travel, and this was true OF Fourth
avenue and Forty-second street. There
was room only for the street car travel.
No one could get through with cab or
carriage.
The conditions which exist on Broad
way between Union Square and Forty
second street were we'll described in an
editorial in this morning SUN The men,
bers OF the Rapid Transit Commission may
not have realized the unusual conditions in
that part of the town, but think that will
ne impressed on them before the business
men get through. Broadway cannot stand
jor board cover or shafts in the side
walks
ANY method Of Const ruCtiOn that involves
tearing up the street and interfering with
~ free use day or night is an attack on the
b,..ness there and a source of intolerable
inconvenience to larger part of all the
PEOPLE of New York tLan such plan could
entail in any other part OF Manhattan"
The part lea Interested in shallow tunnel
built in Broadway by the slice system
seized on the Paris tunnel disaster as an
argument for their way OF reasoning. Chief
Engineer William Barclay Parsons Of the
Rapid Transit Commission was out of town.
~
loss OF life in Paris indicated what might
he possible in a deep tunnel in New York,
tut which would be impossible in shallow
subway, well-ventated as the contractors
say the Mcdonald subway will be.
An officer of the marlborough company
said that a tunnel fifty or sixty feet below
he surface of the street could not be sup
he'd With air through vents as the subway
will be and was consequently a place in
which life would be in greater hazard in
case of an accident attended with the posi-
hty of fire and smoke.
The Broadway business men now have
the signatures of all tenants but one in the
section Interested and practically all OF the
land owners.
The meeting OF the committee of fifty
tomorrow will organize for thoroug n
campaign against ditch or dust fumes and
will appoint a fuh-committee to make ar
r ngements for presenting the arguments
70 the Mayor, the Rapid Transit Com
mission and if need be the marlborough
company.
The business ruen of lower Broadway
have sifted the language of Contract III
and will watch closely the performance OF
the work by the Degnon-McLean Con-
tracing Company
Charles j Bates, an eng ineer of l28 Liberty
street, has been employed by the organiza-
ton to watch the work from beginning to
completion. The contractor has promised
one in front Of ST. Pauls and one in front
Of Trinity Church. If Mr.. Bates discovers
hat the plans Of the contractor are going
beyond what the property owners have
been led to expect, he will report to his EN-
ployers and they will act
Some Of the conditions put in the lower
Broadway contract make interesting read
ing. One says:
In a work OF this magnitude IL ia impos-
sible to show in advance all details or to
cations and contract drawings are to be
taken, therefore, as indicating the amount
Of work. its nature and method OF conStruc-
ton, 30 far as the same are now distinctly
unprecedented.
This would give opportunity for almost
any manpuvre the contractor wished to
make-wth the consent Of the engineer.
Another clause says
No building shall, without the consent OF
the occupant. be deprived Of reasonable
means of access thereto: and where streets
are open, proper and easy means for pas
sengers TO reach or leave street cars shall
be maintained.
Anv citizen who is content to have his
building isolated from the rest of the town
NAV do so.
The contract is full Of provisions which
call for an Interpretation OF what Is reason
able, for instance:
The sidewalks curbs, areas and stoops
along the line OF work must also be pro-
tected from any injury; but should any in
Jury occur to any sidewalk. curb. area or
stoop the contractor shall fully restore the
same to as good condition as existed before
the in ury was done.
The broad privileges enjoyed by the con-
tractor are limited at in this clause:
The contractor shall be responsible for
all damage -" TO adjacent property
or right by the method In which
the construction hereunder shall be DONE
but not including any such damage which
shall necessarily arise from proper construc-
DIlrgulnt this Cpntrnpt rpaapnahla
use, occupation or obstruction Of the streets
or other places therabv
The Broadway business men will insist
on something more definite in the contract
for the subway branch; in fact, contract
that binds the contractor to non-nter-
ference with business and public comfort
and doesn't put so much discretionary
power in the hands Of the chief engineer.
WR. ARBUCkLE GETS A cor