Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-11

mantine crusts OF almost any one OF
Washington's highways. Take Pennsyl-
vania avenue, for instance, as an example
Of what sums of money have been spent
to attain that long broad. smooth. hard.
whitish surface. An asphalt pavement
on Pennsylvania avenue was laid I'm 1878
from LIST to 18th street northwest at S3IS
a yard with an eight-inch concrete base.
The same street now has a six-inch con-
crete base. In 1876 the paving OF this
great thoroughfare cost S300,W0. This
pavement lasted for fourteen yearS-that
is. until 1s9o-when the avenue was re-
surfaced from LIST street to 18th street
northwest at a cost of $l32.3s1. In nell
Their of these cases was any expense to the
street railway company incurred for rails
ing tracks; nor did water mains and tele-
phone gas or sewer conduits have to be
changed. The asphalt laid in 1880 lasted
for seventeen years. and in 1907 the ave-
nue. was again resurfaced. The cost OF
this work last year including the raising
of tracks, mains and conduits, did not
exceed s2O0,000. underground and above
ground, to public and private corpora
tions. Comparing this with the 100000
spent in 1876, spent for the same purpose,
some idea OF the advantageous reduction
of expenses attained by improved meth
DDS Of production is reached.
Two Weeks for Each Block.
Weather conditions being fair, a con-
tractor must have two weeks in which to
complete the paving of one block or the
average street. Last July. when the
thermometer registered around JOB and
1O4 degrees in the shade. the sons of toll.
who compose the gangs that work the
streets. were bending their backs over
the mellow asphalt, in the full force or
the suns rays. The effect of the sun on
the men was apparent. but il was still
more apparent on the asphalt that was
being torn up by them. Asphalt, though
ordinarily adamantine, becomes very SOFT
and viScOuS.
This ungainly viscosity is the vital
cause of the great trouble the workmen
experience, especially when the prepara-
tory gang is at the task OF grading.
Grading" is what might be called dress
ing down or tearing up the street. IL
is the result of the first tearing up q
the street. 1t is the final result OF the
first pick points that sink into street
that Is to be resurfaced. After peeilnS
off the three layers that compose an
asphalted paved street, the gang Is fol-
lowed by several men who shovel and dig
down to Mother Earth, and who leave
the erstwhile asphalted street bare to lts
foundation Of clay and dirt, intersected
here and there by endless ridges of ce-
ment broken stone and brick. These ce-
ment ridges are the upper crusts or tele-
phone, gas, water and electric light mains
They have to be worked around IN put
ting down the base
Although a city block under improve
ment is opened for about two weeks, nc
work is being done on the street Tor
about one week of this time. as ii takes
about a week for the concrete base TO
settle In laying a new street the con-
tractor starts by laying 10 square yards
of pavement a day One surface gang
does that. This is about the approximate
area of a square in the city of Washing
ton.
The first asphalt pavement laid in
Washington was put down in 1871. on
PENNSYLVANIA avenue from 10Th street
west to 18th street northwest. From this
small beginning the existing street pave
ment conditions have developed. From
every point broad white stretches of
street lead to everywhere. The deep,
green foliage of the shade trees harmon
ize with the glaring whiteness of the as
phalt The streets are indeed a very inn
portant factor in the makeup of this city
beautiful.