Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-06-11

Mayor o. L. Ingledue, who has had
charge Of obtaining some information
from Richmond, Ind concerning con-
crete paving, read to the council Mon
day night a letter received from Fred
r. Charles, city civil engineer OF
Richmond, who was delegated to the
task by Mayor Richard Schillinger,
whom Mayor Ingledue wrote. Mr..
Charles writes OF the paving in de-
tail, and tells Of Its superior lasting
qualities over other kinds. and the
cheap cost of construction as COM
pared to both brick and asphalt.
The subject Of concrete paving was
brought before the council few weeks
ago, by J. w. Burroughs
who became interested thru an
account published in stone trade
journal. The trade paper had devoted
considerable space to the subject, and
the council became interested, in view
of the fact that East Main street is in
a bad condition, and will have to be
repayed.
Because Of the Importance Of the
subject to Marshalltown, the T.-R.
prints Mr. Charles letter to the mayor
in full, as follows:
"Tha concrete pavements at Rich
mond have attracted considerable at
tentiol, and In answer to numerous
inquiries, and as a matter OF general
interest, have today, made a thor
ough examination of these pavements,
and find conditions as follows: First,
1 may give some data as to time Of
construct ton, cost, nature Of traffic,
etc, The alley adjacent to the West
colt hotel was put down in 1896, thus
having been done about eleven years.
Owing to a settlement of gravel around
the foundation of the hotel, the pave
ment has settled slightly in places, but
this settlement, which would be dis
astrous to almost any other kind Of
pavement, has only resulted in slight
Sunevenness Of the blocks, and other
wise the pavement shows almost no
sign Of wear, altho being a narrow al
ley it carries a large amount of traffic
concentrated in small space. The
cost at the time was Is cents per
square foot
In 1901, two other important al
leys, carrying large traffic. were paved.
In 1902 Sailor street was paved at a
cost Of IA " cents per square foot. This
street is in almost perfect condition.
Last fall it was necessary to cut a
trench thru this pavement to lay un-
foreground telephone conduits, and it
was with the utmost difficulty that the
concrete could be broken. After laying
the conduit the pavement was very
carefully repaired, and seems as good
as new.
In 1903, a very busy intersection at
Seventh and N. A.. streets, was paved
with concrete at a cost OF 1914 cents
per square foot, and In 1904 Elm Place
at a cost of 13 cents per square foot.
The latter street is adjacent to a hotel
and some wholesale establishments,
and over it is done some very<heavy
hauling, especially from the hardware
and iron storage house of Jones Bros,
who esale and retail dealers in hard
ware.
Those pavements show little chip
ping at the edges of the joints, gleft
for contraction and expansion, and
have an occasional temperature crack
but none of these cause any serious
detriment, and otherwise the pave
ments show almost no signs of wear
and will apparently last for years to
come, with no repairs or maintenance
charges.
in addition to those mentioned, we
have number of other alleys paved
with concrete and during the last sea-
son on alleys and streets, we put down
$500 square yards. Our citizens are
very we'll satisfied with this pave
ment. 1t is very easy cleaned and thus
is first class from an aesthetic and san
italy point of view. 1t is low in first
cost, compared to brick, asphalt, OF
bitulithic.
The cost for repairs and mainten-
ance will be nothing for years, an6
life of the pavements will apparently
be far greater than any of those men
toned. It is a little slippery for horses
but not more so than brick, and con-
siderably less SO than asphalt.
considering it from all points we
consider this form of pavement sue
cess. Yours very respectfully.
FIRED R. CHARLES,
"City Civil Engineer
Mr.. Charles also presented a table OF
the cost of different pavements, which
shows the average cost of entire con-
struction Of all concrete paving ir
Richmond to have been IA ITO cents