The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-12-06
ASYLUM NOT
YET BUILT
Contractors and Com
missioner Are at
Loggerheads.

There are going TO be developments
in the matter OF the contract for the
construction of the main building of the
Territorial insane asylum, now held by
the American-Hawaiian Construction
Company
i have taken no steps as yet to annuf
the contract with the American Hawaiian
Construction Company" said Superin-
tendent of Public Works Holloway yes
terday. Il have merely been trying to
get the contractors to go to work on the
building, the construction of which has
been greatly delayed. But l have notified
the company that if work is not com
menced | will take the next legal step
IL the matter. | don't know yet what
the next legal step will be but l will
consult the Attorney-General."
The contract was entered into two
months ago, and very shortly thereafter
misunderstanding arose between the
Department of Public Works and the
contractors as to the construction of that
part of the specifications which prescrib-
ed the manner of making the concrete
blocks TO be used in the building Under
the construction of the department, the
and pressed under a certain pressure.
The claim of the contractors was and is
that there is no machine made that will
tamp and press at any given pressure.
And this is the deadlock. Can a machine
tamp and press at the same time?
The Commissioner of Public Works
has asked us to go on with the work,
and we are willing to GO or" said d.
I. Wilmington, speaking for the Amer
ican-Hawaiian Construction Company
last night. But he has asked us to go
on under an impossible condition. When
we made our bid for that work, we
thought that the specifications were per-
fectly plain, and that we could make
the concrete blocks for the building with
any standard machine used for such
work Now we find that there is a
clause under which the claim is made
that these blocks must be made in a
certain way
There is no machine made that will
do the work of making these concrete
blocks according to specifications. We
are willing and anxious to go ahead,
and will take any standard machine
to do the work that IS approved by the
government"
But the Department of Public Works
has declined to approve the standard
machines that are used in the manu-
facture of concrete blocks. Instead, it |
has referred the contractors to advertise
ments and prospectuses of machines of |
which the department has no actual !,
We have since investigated |
the possibilities of these machines and |
we find that no one of them can make !
the blocks according to these speclfica-
tions.
"The trouble is that the specifications
are so drawn that, as interpreted by the
department., they call for method of
which is not known to the
art. and which is incapable of execution
1y any known process or machine.
t'This contract was signed but two
months ago, instead of four as stated III
an evening paper. We have been at all
lines and still are anxious to go ahead
with the work, under any method of
known to the trade, but
We object to proceeding under con-
truction of the contract which calls for
. method not so known.
I'VE intend. however, to lay this mat
er before the Governor and ask for an
investigation of why the specifications
we're drawn as they were. We will, at
hat time. give the whole story OF this
natter to the public. It's rich one.
e'The American-H Hawaiian Construction
Company has bid upon $225, 600 worth
# work for the territory during the
asst year. and our bids have been $4,000
ess than those of any other responsible
idder for the same work.
There were but two bidders, the
american Hawaiian Construction Com
any and the Concrete Construction
company, when bids were called for the
nsane asylum building, and the Amer
,an- Hawaiian was granted the contract
or the main buildin0 at SIS, 600.