The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-24
DITCH With A COVER ON IT.
ITS PROGRESS 50 SLOW THAT
SOMETHING MUST BE DONE.
Lower Broadway Doubts That the Hasten
ing Process VIII BE ~ Harmless 70
Trade ~ the Opening Conditions
Have Bee0-lpper Broadway watching

tn8 FrOCc0B Will oe - uexWhess ~
Trade ~ the Opening Conditions
Have Bee0-Upper Broadway watching
A few more loads Of dirt were dug out
from under lower Broadway and carted
away last night. and to-day the covered
hole in front of old St Paul's extends a
foot or so further on the way to the Battery.
In the daytime the job slumbered as usual.
None Of the nearby merchants has any
complaint TO make, In business hours
there is nothing In the way Of work to
annoy them.
But they are beginning to wonder how
long it will take to complete the subway
to Brooklyn at the present rate Of progress
and how long the city's principal thorough
fare will have to put up with the unsightly
scaffolding which it Is proposed to erect at
three principal points.
Considering Roadway made at present,
Contractor McDonalds hasty estimate
the other day Of ten years to do the job
and his angry statement to the Rapid
Transit Commissioners that the work now
being done doesn't amount to row OF
pins seem entirely reasonable.
The tenants in lower Broadway are not
talking much about the subway these days.
But they are doing lot ofthinking, and for
very good reason. Mr.. McDonald's con-
tract calls for the completion Of the tunnel
to Brooklyn in three years The Rapid
Transit Commission can extend the time
to four years. if necessary. But for every
additional month beyond four years taken
by the contract or he must forfeit per cent.
of the 81 900 900 Of the contract price.
The contractor is permitted to do the
work in any way he pleases, subject to the
approval Of the commissions chief en-
gineer, so long as the surface Of Broad
way is kept clear for traffic in the daytime
Nobody down Broadway believes for q
moment that the railway to the Battery
can be built and equipped for traffic IN
that time under the present conditions
of progress, even with duplicate shafts
at Trinity Church and Bowling Green.
They don't believe that Mr.. Mcdonald.
with the incentive Of bonus for COM
plotting the work in less than the contract
time will think so either. and they are wait
ing to see just what scheme he and Chief
Engineer Parsons will hatch to hurry along
the excavating,
The latest news from the chief engineers
Office is that it is proposed to dig sub-shafts
between these three points, for dirt re-
moval. How that can be done without
further blocking Broadway has not
been explained.
Still another scheme not yet in operation.
but already decided upon to hurry tho dirt
removal, is to have the big derricks upon
the platforms raised over Broadway pile
up there in daytime as much earth and
sand as the structures will hold. Then at
night, when the carts are removing the
eIcavated material they can be loaded
with the new stuff being hoisted out Of
the holes and this accumulated supply
shot through chutes from the platform
at the same time. This scheme will cut
almost in half the contractors carriage
bill, one Of the chief itemssin his expenses.
The lower Broadway merchants think
of the derricks raft ling and the dirt buckets
swinging from hole to platform and 1t is
not a pleasant prospect for profitable
winters trade With a December wind
whirling around tn heaps. OF loose dirt
and sand upon the scanolding they can't
picture anybody desiring to go shopping
on Broadway below Vesev street or vol
UNFAIRLY to rent an office there.
But the covered-ditch method has been
adopted for the Brooklyn extension Of the
subway and the contract to carry it out
has been signed. so the merchants are
Of them consider bad job Meantime
their fellow business men In upper Broad.
way are closely watching the progress Of
the work. realizing that the trench sub
way system is on trial. and that it's friends
in the Rapid Transit Commission will exert
every effort to make the best possible show
ing for it.
What lower Broadway suffers from the
trench. upper Broadway, if the subway
is carried up there by the same method,
may expect, if not worse. None OF it's
business men intends to permit that to be-
come such a highway OF bankruptcy as
Forty-second street, hence the keen watch
on lower Broadway and the precautions
which have made the work there go on at
a snails pace. Upper Broadway wants to
see if the comparative harmlessness of the
ditch method can be maintained.
1t was said at Chief Engineer Parsons
Office yesterday that he is still studying
the best way to extend the subway uptown
without bankrupting the Broadway business
men. 1t was further explained that II
takes a great deal of study to design an
underground railroad which shall be neither
a deep tunnel. such as the Penns ylvania
has planned to build, without disturbing
the street surfaces at all, nor ditch subway,
such as has left n trail of business demorali-
cation from end to end Of the city.
Mr.. Parsons is not generally believed
to favor the tunnel method. The Broadway
merchants are resolved not to have a ditch
in front Of their doors. Many people are
il Mr.. Parsons will be able to
think out a compromise, or will adopt the
funnel method after all