The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-09
HOLDING BACK WORK
SOUTHERN RAILWAY DELAYS AN
 EXTENSION.
Inability to Dispose of Improvement Bonds Given ns a ReasOn-May He Delayed several
 Years.

scottsboro, April 8.-(Special. )-Re- cent actions on the part of the South ern Railway bearing on the extension between Stevenson and Chattanooga has led many to think it is the in- tention of the company to hold up the work for the present and complete only that part that rigid economy would dictate.
 This includes the tunnel through Lookout Mountain and the 1.200 foot concrete arch at Cummings Gap and other concrete work.
 The cause of the apparent retard- ing of the work Is said to be due to the inability of the company to sell its improvement bonds.
 On April the officials of the engi- neering department served notice on the resident engineer in charge of the Stevenson extension to dispense with the services of an engineer and his corps, numbering about eleven men. Although no official notice has been given 1t is said that the company in- tends to limit the monthly estimates of W. J. Oliver and his sub-contract- ing firms on the work now under way. This is one of the methods employed by railroads to retard the work, as the contractor will only do as much work as his limited estimates will allow.
 It has also been rumored that the road has cancelled its contracts for the steel superstructure of the bridge across the Tennessee River at Otis Island, by paying the bridge company per cent. on its contract. The con- create abutments for the bridge have been completed.
 No work of any nature has bedn done on the part of the extension be- nd as the contract has never been let. Since the company began the work over a year ago, no disposition has been made to let the contract for this part of the work. It is said that contrary to it's former intentions of letting the contract on the completion of other parts of the work. the railroad com! pany will not do so for the present. This is borne out by the fact that the engineer and his crew were dismissed.
 The part of the work between the Tennessee River and South Pittsburg is practically completed with the pos- sible exception of laying the tracks.
 The work between the river and Cummings Gap will be the matter or only a few months, while the con- crete work at Cummings' Gap Is be- ino nushed to completion. It Is thought that this work will not take over two months to complete. The grading and filling between the gap and the tun- nel is practically completed, 1t Is said.
 If the work on the tunnel through Lookout Mountain Is continued at US present rate, this part of the work will be completed within the next hve morths. Practically all of the exca- vations have been finished, and all that remains to be done is the concreting and walling for a distance of three or four hundred feet.
 The greater part of the work yet to be done on the extension between Chattanooga and South Pittsburg is between the mouth of the tunnel and the terminals of the road in Chatta- nooga Should the road decide to pro- ceed with the work at the rate 1t has been going in the past year. the entire extension would probably be completed in a year or fourteen months. Should the inability to sell the Improvement bonds retard the work. the extension will not be completed within the next eighteen months or two years.