Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-10-14

what respect siaoadam is deficient
| by giving tabniated statement pr the
life OF various forms nf pavement ana
the annual cost of construction ana
maintcnancr recently made by the
| city cnpirrer of Rochester ". Y. The
table shows the cost of the coustruc-
ton anil maintenance of pavcments
on street having traffic of roo
tons Dor square yard per day. The
] tonnage would. 80 vas explained. corr
r.ssond to nat nf rather heavily
ffr.riod residence street or "a busi-
rpsr street of medium travel lu cities
/ uam 100000 to 100000 population.
Tnu ubf. be- 8e follows
life of Annual cost
] Material Pavement per sl yd.
| Granite block $50 years S.fo2
/ shoot asphalt ...fG yaHrs .29T
Brick ..........12 years 29n
Macad1m ...... o years .512
From This % is argued that macad-
am boz the long run is The most cost-
ly and Decides has the disagreeable
feature of having to Dee renewed az
short intervals ucceasitaune tho tear
lnc up of the streets Asphalt O. de-
clured to be tho cheapest when 10 is
taken into consideration shat its Hfo
la fifteen ye1rs Brick is only seven-
teuths of One per cont per year
cheaper than asphalt but its life is
three years less. which more than
oqual.zes the cost 300 favor Of the ass
phalJ
But what residential street has %
traffic of 100 tons per square yard
per davo DO even the main business
streets average such burden
Scarcely. we think But as for COM
pairing our wide. and far reaching
city rce,s with the narrow thorough
fares OF more compactod business
cities of the East. Tho comparison So
OF uo particular value.
Tho Engineer Says that the prop
orty owners de.ilc ae 90 "what MAJ
torlal shall Doe used and on such
thoroughf1ras as Second avenue,
which bias recently been macadam-
ized. their choice was for that matcri-
al because of the lower initial cost"
This statement ls surely q slip of
Engineer meant 90 relieve the city
council OF Che responsibility Of the
choice of the material Tho council
chose. FOO the face OF repeated proc
tests, mass meetings and organized
resistance ON tho part of the people,
the very Kind Of material that was
already proved Co be among the least
satisfactory for macadamizing pur-
poses. They have chung TO that poor
material with tenacity that s. high
ly suggestive OF some other motive
than merely that OF belief In the
material itself
The council uses that material
from private quarry at great cost
10 the city. though much superior
stone owned by the city may be had
at any time FOR the taking Of it.
The Engineer speaks of the "cx-
cellent material from the Pascoe
quarries". but this is sheer assump-
ton What analysis or test has
shown % to Doe excellent? How
does 60 compare with the material
used ou the mac1damlzcd drive TO
Fort Douglass That is q good road
10 has already been under heavy tmf-
Dc Tor three ye1rs WIN &C not last
for many years yet7 why not point
10 roads that we can inspect here
at home2
This apology FOR the Inherent weak
ness of roads wrongly laid. i'm flag
rant violation Of the specifications
and from poor aud discredited ma
terial-what is 90 but an attempt 70
cover up a vast and comparatively
useless expenditure OF the peoples
money for roads that may barely hold
together am after elcction7
But We are really gratined 20 hear
the Engineer say anything The alb
solute silence hitherto on this subject
boy every officer and apologist for this
grave and costly delinquency ought
20 be very telling argument with
taNpaylng voters however the city
employees may regard H.