The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-08-25
I There Is No Other Kind Of
Pavement That Costs ANY,
where Near the Amount to
Keep in Repair.
REPAIR PLANTS COSTLY
TO PUT IN SQUARE YARD OF
PATCH IT COSTS CITY As MUCH
As THOUGH IT SURFACED AN
ENTIRE BLOCK.
ESPECIAL to Palladium


indianapolis, Aug. 25.-One Of the
large items of expense in the depart
ment Of public works in this city is
the maintenance and repair Of asphalt
streets Inasmuch as Richmond is
talking some of putting down an as
phalt pavement in one of it's streets,
1t might be well to mention this fact
and tell something about it.
indianapolis has fifty.eight miles of
asphalt streets but it is not putting
down much asphalt just now. Brick
and bitulithic material seem to have
become more popular. There is not
much difference in the cost OF laying
the various kinds OF standard pave
ments, but after they are down there
is a vast difference in the cost Of keep
ang them In repair. ...
What the Cost 10. -
right close to $4,000 a year to keep
in repair it's fifty-eight miles Of as
phalt streets. This Is nearly thous-
and dollars mile per year. There is
no other kind Of pavement that costs
anywhere near that amount to keep in
repair.
The asphalt surface wears off and
great holes appear in the pavement.
Unless these holes are repaired and
patched at once the wheels of wagons
and other vehicles running over them
will wear down into the foundation
and the pavement then has to be re-
built from the bottom up. 1t is an ex-
pensive proposition to take an asphalt
repair outfit out on a stret to make a
few repairs. It costs money to run a
repair plant, and it costs just as much
to fire 1t up and get ready to put in a
patch yeard square as it does to get
ready to surface whole block.
And still these patches must be put
down at once or the street will be
ruined. They must not be allowed to
grow larger.
An Enormous Expense.
An asphalt contractor would not
wish to and could not afford to take
out repair outfit just to make few
would be enormous per square yard
The contractor would likely insist on
waiting until there were a number of
places to be repaired before he would
undertake to do the work. and If he
did this It is likely that the patches
would by that time be so large and
the pavement SO badly worn that it
would require almost an entire re-sur-
facing of the street. Therefore, while
It costs the city of Indianapolis about
thousand dollars a mile per year to
keep its fifty-eight miles of asphalt
streets in repair, 1t would cost a city
with only one or two asphalt streets
vastly more than that to keep this
small amount of pavement in repair.
A Graft Scandal.
Up to a year or SO ago the city Of
Indianapolis had the asphalt repair
work done under a contract which it
made with the Western Construction
company of this city, at the rate of
sixty-five cents square yard. Even
II the work had been actually done
at this price and an honest job had
been turned out 1t would have cost
the city more than $4,000 year to
keep its asphalt streets in repair. But
one Of the greatest graft scandals ev-
er known in the history of Intiianapo-
lis developed from that contract. and
1t resulted in Harry p Brunaugh, who
had charge of the patching work. 60
ing to the penitentiary. where he is
now serving term. 1t was discover
ed that Brunaugh padded the accounts
and robbed the city. and it was almost
impossible to detect the fraud.
The patches were measured by city
inspectors and the dimensions were
set down In book Brunaugh chang.
ed these figures so as to increase the
size Of the patches. For instance a
patch Xxi foot in size was made to
read in the book 21x21, or 2x2 was
made to read 12x21, and SO on.
Robbed the City.
BY this means the city was filched
Of thousands of dollars. OF course
this does not prove anything against
the virtue Of asphalt as paving ma
teriaI. but 1t shows the possibilities
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