Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-23
By the New Treatment a Pavement is
Made, Which, It is Said, Will
Last Twenty-Five Years.


is a problem for the street department to
unravel, I gave this subject special atten-
| ton, and found that in New York they were
| tearing up the streets by the block in the
lower section of town below Chambers
stheet, and where the traffic is the heaviest
| and substituting the new creosote-resn
| treated wooden blocks, following the ex-
| ample of London, Paris and other Euro
| pean capitals.
/ 'They are thus repaving Broadway below
| Vesey street and l thought that it would
| be a good idea, when the question of re-
| paving Pennsylvania avenue came up in
| the future, as the present pavement upon
that historic thoroughfare is sixteen years
| old. and it is only question of time when
! 1t will have to be resurfaced, that Con-
| gress might be induced to make special
| appropriation for the new pavement for the
| main portion of the avenue in question at
| least. from the Peace monument to 18th
street.
Pennsylvania Avenue Pavement.
i have been unable to obtain any history
| Of the surface of our widest and finest thor
| oughfare prior to 1882. and it is probably
| fair to assume that before that early date
Pennsylvania avenues surface was the reg
ulation packed earth roadway.
In 1882, however, appropriation was
made for laying the surface in macadam
! from the Capitol to 10Th street. Sixteen
years later, In 1913, the macadamized sur
| face was extended from 18th to 18th street
Many of our older citizens will also recall
that it was not until 1851 that this then
new kind of street surfacing was first laid
around the Capitol, while in the following
year, Pennsylvania avenue from 18th street
| to Rock Creek was laid in cobble stones.
| This work was done by the United States
government. and it cost in the aggregate
$421, 2S3.
THE macadamized pavement remained
on Pennsylvania avenue until some years
after the civil war. During the war period
| it was very badly cut up by the quarter
m WI of ha nd hv fhQ
artillery. and it was, in those troublous
times, in very bad condition. 1t was
however, patched and repaired until 1870,
when the first paving commission was
formed under the act of July 8 of that
year. This commission had hard propo-
stion to deal with. and it was composed
of the then, Secretary Of the Interior, En-
gineer of Public Buildings and Grounds
Michler, and Mayor Emery of Washington.
The commission decided upon a wooden
pavement. and one was laid of pine blocks
laid on seven-eighths pine boards on bed
of sand, and the cost was paid from
sessments against the property on the
street and the railroad company. This
wooden pavement went to pieces within
commission composed of Engineer officers
Wright and Gilmore, and Supervising Ar
chitect Clark, a sheet asphalt pavement
upon concrete base was laid from the
Capitol to 10Th street This pavement wore
out during the ensuing fourteen years; and
in 1890 special appropriation was made
for the resurfacing Of the avenue extend
ing to 18th street.
Start Already Made.
at is this latter resurfacing which is in
use today, and it has been kept in repair
by constant patching and repatching. The
old wooden block pavement was laid be-
fore the new creosote process was in use,
so no test between the old and the new
may be made. I made inquiries at the
street department in New York; and learned
that the new wooden blocks were laid ex-
perimentally in Warren street, upon which
there Is a heavy traffic, and that the result
was 80 satisfactory, and petitions from
property owners on other downtown streets
were SO numerous for the laying of the
blocks elsewhere downtown, that the bureau
of highways decided to repave all of the
principle thoroughfares in the office building
district with the blocks. including lower
Broadway.
1.-THE government has already initiated the
wooden block movement by replacing the
granite pavements in the navy yards at
Brooklyn and Boston with wood, and it
would not therefore be an entirely new
proposition in government circles in Wash
ington. It is contended by the advocates
of the blocks that they do not wear out,
and therefore the heavy item of repair
and uniform wearing surface averaging
about an eighth of an inch only in five
years. If this be fact 1t is an important
one, as the item Of repairs constitutes one
of the principal ones in our yearly local
budget. Last year we expended in Wash
ington $4,000 for street repairs alone.
The Problem Of Repairs.
"Of this amount Pennsylvania avenue re-
ceived 1855 for repairs from the Peace
monument to 7th street, $2,4s2 from 7th
to 18th street, and $7O4 from 18th to 18th
street. or 1854 in all for about one and
All engineers concede that the elimination
of repairs of streets surface when once
down is one Of the problems of street
paving.
LAS the creosote-resin process is new In
practice 1 made further inquiries concern
Ing 1t. The blocks used in the United
States are about eight inches long and from
three to four inches in width and depth of
all-heart, long-leaf pine and treated with
a waterproof mixture of creosote oil, resin
and other minor compositions, being COM
pietely impregnated through to the heart
of the wood with twenty-five pounds of the
preservatNe mixture to the cubic foot.
In London, Paris and other continental
cities they use our American pine, and
predominating. There are about a dozen
streets in Baltimore paved with the blocks
New York and Boston, however, ore the
leading cities in this country.
THE contention is that these blocks are
practically indestructible, and have life
OF over twenty-five years before needing
replacing, though as to the value Of such
by the street department in New York,
however. that the street surfaces showed
no signs of wear, which would tend to
support the claim of durability, the main
problem Of street pavements. From my
observation they seemed very smooth and
noiseless, which, was informed, was one
of the main reasons why the New York
authorities are placing them In the narrow
unbearably noisy streets Of lower Manhat-
tan.
The Sanitary Feature.
There is. however, no question as to
their superiority as to the sanitary stand
point. They are very easily cleaned, and
do not absorb street filth, because the
joints are not open for the absorption of
this insanitary matter, and the creosote
oil being highly antiseptic would tend to
destroy germs Of disease which might exist
upon the street surface.
Knowing that the creosote Improvisation
turned the wood into very hard compost