Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-07-15
Miles of Macadam Streets Laid
OF Strange and Infested
Material.
DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHY
City Engineer Says He Has Never
Been Authorized to Test the
Stone He Uses.

No defenders Of the course OF tho
council In laying miles OF discredited
matchmaking material on the city
streets have vet been found. Inquiries
made thus far reveal the fact that
every one who knows of the work now
IN progress and of the materials en-
ployed therein. is of the opinion that
the work is erroneous in method and
the material without substantial merit.
But most singular fact has Just
come 10 light.
it now develops that this blue lime
stone used OH a number of streets al
ready spoit. and now being placed on
about four miles of other streets with
similar results TO follow In the imme-
dfate future has never been tested
NO OFFICIAL STANDING.
This limerick now being spread upon
The streets of Salt Lake City lis without
any oHisial standing.
To an Inquiry by a News reporter
today as to whether or not the quail
ties of the stone now being used for
macadamizing the city streets had been
tested. the city engineer made this
significant admission; The city engi-
neer has made no tests of the rock
used, not having been authorized 10 do
So
What is the office of the city engineer
for? Does the city engineer lay miles
Of streets without knowing what ma
terial is being used?
RATHER ABSURD IDEA,
The idea that the council should first
authorize the engineers to make tests
OF the rock he Is nsing. strikes most
people as simply absurd II is wei
known that the government at WASH
ington will analyze free OF cost and
will at any time give the properties OF
rock used in road making.
The fact that the engineer has never
had the rock tested, and therefore
knows only of the value and strength
of his material by the practical tests
thus far made. would indicate that the
engineer hemself knows that this
material is relatively worthless.
EVEN MAYOR is DUBIOUS.
Mayor Ezra Thompson and many at
the councllmen have been heard In the
past to express their view that this
Kind of material now employed Is not
durable. Similar expressions are at
tributed to the city engineer. Other
engineers have been free In expressing
their conviction that this rock will not
answer Yet the work goes on and the
people pay from VI to SO per front
foot and the city fourth more for a
kind of paving that Is doomed 10 q brief
and unsatisfactory existence and then
to inevitable renewal and replacement
with some other kind.
A headline in the former article in
the News" to the effect that the cost
of paving may run from $1,000 to sl0,-
600 for the taxpayers besides the ctty's
proportion of the expense might be
misleading as to the second figure I'M
less II Is born In mind that II represents
the reported cost of cutting down GER
tain steep grades. and paving the
street, with the building OF the retain
ing walls by property owners.
Reese, Palmer a. Everill, 1t Is learned.
were the original contractors in con-
structing the Fort Douglas drive on
South Temple street, and afterwards
the firm became Tate, Palmer & Everlll
The latter road shows what can be
done with material owned by the city.
The crumbiing blue limestone roads
show the worthlessness of the material
which the city is purchasing from pri-
vate quarries and hauling for long dis
tances to the scene of operations.