The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1908-01-24
Preliminary Proposition by
City Engineering Depart
ment TO Works Board.
COST WILL Be $lS4,9OO
Plan Is TO Follow and Straighten
Present Water Courses and
Make Them Five Feet Deep
and Twenty-Five Feet
Wide.

Edward S. Rankin, engineer of sew
ers and drainage of the engineering di-
vision of the Board of Works, yester-
day presented to that body his report
on a sewerage system for carrying off
the surface water of the Vailsburg sec
ton of the city. The preliminary plans
prepared by Engineer Rankin were
viewed by the commissioners and the
matter laid over for a week. They call
practically for annals. The estimated
cost of the installation of the system
advocated by Mr.. Rankin is 1854, 300.
He recommends that a conference. be
held with East Orange oficiSls on the
matter, and a meeting will be ar
ranged.
When Vailsburg was annexed tho
sewerage system was in bad shape, and
during heavy storms the streets are
rendered impossible IND cellars flood
ed. Residents have protested on num-
berless occasions, and last year En-
gineer Rankin prepared a report, but
nothing was done in the matter. It is
expected that after the conference with
the East Orange authorities the Board
OF Works will take up the matter.
In the report Mr.. Rankin says:
THE sewage of this entire section is dis
charged into the joint outlet sewer, and
consequently no provision is made for the
surface drainage. That part of the area
comprised within the old city limits drains
partly into the pond at Fifteenth avenue
and Souths Nineteenth street, but most of
the water finds its way into South Orange
avenue, making that thorouahfare nearly
impossible In heavy rain storms. AS fire.
quent complaints have been received, both
in regard to the conditions existing at the
pond and in, the avenue. 1t seems impera-
tive to provide some permanent means of
taking care of this storm water.
In a report made to the board last year
recommending that a storm water eve
be constructed in South Orange avenue
from South sixteenth street to the ditch
running through Electric Park, with a
branch through South Nineteenth street, to
drain the pocket at Fifteenth avenue.
This opens the whole subject OF Walls
burg drainage. as neither this DITCH nor the
from nptth..to south are adequate TO carry
eff the, water after heavy storms, aud fire.
gently cause delay to traffic on aSouth
RR .9%ne damage - peagstriSHa and property
1T have therefore prepared several plans
snd preliminary estimates of the cost of
d complete system Of drainage from the
point where the brook enters the town of
f%rvinSton at West End avenue and Or
Gnge avenue, following the general direc-
ton of its three branches to South Orange
avenue. The area drained is so large, some
IftbV dCItS III dhf dlI III u ~ IA
that the expense of a permanent masonry
construction throughout seems hardly war
ranted at this time, at least for the lower
end of the line below the junction of the
three branches.
such a drain in order to provide for all
future development would have to be over
thirteen feet in diameter, or rs a depth of
more than five feet is not obtainable owing
TO the outlet. a rectangular section
would have to be resorted to 5 feet high
by p feet in width. The cost of such n
structure would be In the neighborhood of
$50 per foot. I would, therefore, suggest
that the present ditch from Orange ave-
nue to Park place be widened and straight
cned, so as 10 run midway between West
End avenue and Carolina avenue. making
it wide enough to take the present maxi
mum flow and leaving till some future
time the building of a permanent struc-
ture, il it should ever be deemed neces-
sarX.
branches-the last branch crossing South
Orange avenue at Electric Park and re-
ceiving the flow from the avenue within
the old city limits, would follow approx
mately the line of the present ditch
through private property to Grove terrace,
and thence 60 the new ditch above men
toned. The middle branch would run
through West Enc avenue or follow the
course of the present branch from South
Orange avenue to Park place, and thence
TO the new ditch, and the west branch
through Brookdale avenue and Lindsey
avenue, or along the present line of the
brook, entering the main ditch about 200
feet south of the first branch.
Before any definite action is taken on
the matter I would suggest that a con-
ference be held with the East Orange au-
thorities, as they are largely Interested in
the matter, and some might
be made whereby they would bear part of
the cost.
Any estimate of the cost at this time
must necessarily be only a rough approx
nation, as the plans are merely pre-
liminary and subject to modification after
further study, put the following will give
some idea Of the magnitude Of the work:
Outlet 81, 400
East branch to South. Orange avenue sc, 800
Newark branch OF east branch. 49,. 81 ,00O
Middle branch to South Orange ave-
West branch to South Orange avenue 10000
Total .$1s4, 800
Respectfully,
EDWARD s. RANKIN,
"Tnsineer of Sewers and Drainage"