Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-07-08
eeINnsLl CAN AFFORD TO DELIBERATE


GRlNNELL CAN AFFORD TO DELIBERATE
Since Mason City has actually let
contract for the laying of concrete
pavement at s1.19 per square yard the
city council of Grinnell can we'll af-
ford to WAIVER and hesitate before vot-
ing a patented bituithic pavement at
double the cost of Mason City's pave
ment. Bitulithic is a full half brother
20 concrete using the same concrete
foundation and differing only as to the
TOP course or wearing surface which,
in both pavements. is two inches thick.
Al Mason City they purpose to use a
TOP course of one part cement and two
parts sand marked off into blocks 412x9
inches at an angle of Is degrees with
the curb. At Grinnell it is purposed
to lay TWO inch wearing surface of a
patented asphalt mixture on top of the
same concrete foundation and call it
bitulithic which will enable the pat
entees to exact tribute OF s1.+5 Per
square yard FOR the wearing surface
alone whereas Mason City is to buy
its entire pavement for s1.19
Now the tricks in this paving bus
mess are wondrous to behold. The paw
ing which Mason City gets for s119
is pain concrete and differing but
slightly and very immaterially from
the various forms of concrete pave
nents which are now in use in such
cities as Boston and Lynn, Mass,
Knoxville. Tenn. New Orleans. La. ST.
Joseph and Springfield. No. yicksburg,
Miss. and Kalamazoo Mich. Troy. n.
Y, Alameda, Cal, and Plainfeld, N. j..
In all of these cities the concrete pave
ments differ only in that some of them
use crushed stone in the wearing sur
face while others mix with the cement
crushed stone of various sizes without
| sand to make the wearing surface but
! in all of them the concrete Is a decided
success and it seems to make little or
no difference whether the wearing sur
| face contains part stone and part sand
| or all stone or all sand with the cement.
This part of it seems to depend entirely
upon which patentee succeeds in work
ing a city council to adopt his patented
form of concrete and all seem to work
equally well when laid according to
specifications.
At Grinnell, however. pavement is a
new thing. The city council has taken
very little time in which 10 study the
question. After ten or fifteen years of
experience and litigation over paving
contracts Grinnell people Will go slower
lust now they have heard one mans
argument and it sounds good therefore
they are ready to pay s1.45 per yard for
the top course Of a pavement which
can not possibly cost the patentee more
than so to 10 cents to produce ane
which is to be laid in concrete at Masor
City for about 81 cents. Grinnell pu-.
above cost on the two inch wearing
poses to pay bitulithic patentees ap,
proximately s10,56o per mile prof
| surface alone and s12,672 per mile more
than Mason City has contracted to pay
Each city will get approximately TIM
same concrete foundation while Masoi
City can relay its wearing surface tw'
and a half times within the price which
Grinnell purposes to pay
OF course in the actual letting of con
tracts Grinnell will get a few cents re
lief from these gross figures for tn
patentees of bitulithic Will have an in
side bidder or personal representativ
capture the contract. They have file
their offer to the world to furnish thei
wearing surface for $1.45 per squar
yard so as to comply with certain cour
decisions and escape the charge Of non
competitive bids but at that price Their
lis enough velvet in it to permit an in
side contractor to make gross bid G
iSSS rn2n me aCludl COSL VI llle con
crete foundation additional. He make
good on a special price from the pat
entees on the wearing surface an
thereby captures the contract but sti
the patentees have controlled the pric
at a figure way above a REASONABLE
profit.
The same game was attempted i
Marshalltown Patentees of granitoi
3 bid s1.9s on a concrete pavement whic
the engineering department of the larg
= est cement manufacturers in the worl
has estimated should cost 1920 to la
9 in Marshalltown, thus asking owe
8 81 900 per mile profit on six or seve
miles Of paving. The city counc
changed it's specifications so as t
evade the patented control and got
bid of s1.s2A but will get bids as lo'
as $3.50 If it persists. And yet the on,
material difference between the SIS
lconcrete and the city's concrete wa
that the first would have been 40 De
cent cement to 60 per cent crushe
stoue III the ~%ea ring surface while II