New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-07-25
PETERBOROUGH MEN BUSY .
Inspection of Plans Indicates
Company Has Not Quit Subways.
MAY BE SEEKING A DELAY
Spe cifications and Contract
Forms Ready for Sections of
Lexington Avenue Line.

Clear indications that the marlborough
itself out of the future transit situation
were given yesterday, when the corpora
tlon put five men at work i'm tho Offices of
the Public Service Commission going over
the plans and Specifications and contract
| forms for those sections of the Lexington
avenue subway for which construction con
! tracts have not as yet been signed.
These employees of the company included
| lawyers, engineers and craftsmen, but they
! refused TO say Just why the company
| wished the Information they were getting.
! As such things are public records the COM
| mission had no right 10 ask why the
representatives of the company wished 10
/ inspect them.
one OF the explanations suggested for the
move on the part Of the Interborough was
that the company wanted to see whether
its own estimates of the cost Of building
/ the Lexington avenue line were correct.
Another suggestion was that the Inter-
borough was looking for points upon which
it might prevent the Public Service Com
mission from entering into contracts for
the construction OF any more sections Of
| the route
The plans and specifications and the
| contract forms are ready for all the sec
| lions OF the Lexington avenue line from
l4th street to l35th street. The contracts
are 10 be changed in accordance with the
| determination TO cut down the size of the
! bore. This will necessitate re-advertisng.
| There are To be some changes made at 18th
| street to provide for connections between
| the north and south line and the Union
! Square route, going through 18th street
! and to the Eastern District. I'm order TO
accomplish these changes and prepare
| plans and specifications for the proposed
new lines the Public Service Commission
viii take on at once about 125 new cngi-
/ neers and other employees
Charles II. PeckWorth. who has the con-
tract for the last Of the five sections for
which contracts have been approved, did
not sign his contract yesterday. IT is OK
pected that he will do so to-day.
Commenting on Mayor Gaynor's cx-
pressed intention Of holding up the plan to
give the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company
the contracts for operating the new sub
way system, President Mitchell Of the Board
Of Aldermen said yesterday:
II suppose that If the Mayor wants to
hold up subways with his veto he will do
so, so far as he is able. The matter will
work itself out. In the mean time We are
going to do some digging. That is the
main thing
AS for a contract with the Brooklyn
| Rapid Transit Company. there is none now,
| Everybody should know that We all knew
! that there would have to be competitive
bidding. | presume that the contracts will
be drawn by the commission i'm line with
the policy declared by tn. beard on Friday.
If the PETERBOROUGH can oyerbid that, well
and good"
President Mitchell was asked whether II
the contracts were drawn in accordance
with the adoption of the Brooklyn Rapid
Transit plan by the Board of Estimate
they would not by their very nature eX-
clude the PETERBOROUGH.
1T frequently happens replied President
Mitchell that a contract cannot be drawn
10 admit every bidder. For instance. If the
PETERBOROUGH had come in, the contracts for
it's extensions would have had TO be adver-
tised, but no other company would have
been able To compete
Mayor Gaynor has not indicated so far
that he intends Ia take any vacation this
summer, and other members of the Board
of Estimate are coming to think that they
cannot afford to get too far from the sub
way situation this year.