The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-30
The Bids Accepted Call for $1.4O, $1.39 and S9
 Cents Per Yard
PROPERTY HOLDERS
 SAVED ABOUT $17,000
New Method of Awarding Contracts Proves Very Beneficial to Prop erty Holders on Street-Lo-
 cations of New Work

Contracts for about 5O,OVo squaio of street paving were awarded yesteraas by the city commissioners after lengthS session, at which the merits ana oenier- It's of the various kinds of paving material was thoroughly discussed. The McCartin Paving and Construction company was the successful bidders on about @,ooo Square yards at $1. 40 per yard, the South srn Asphalt and Construction company secured about 15.0C0 yards at s1.Ss, and the C. NJ Burkhalter company about OO0O yards at ss oents The three successful bidders submitted the lowest bids, based on the materials to be used the two first bids being for asphalt pavements and the Burkhalter bid for binder macadam.
 In contrast to the former plan If awarding contracts for street paving, in which the city authorities specified the paving material to be used, the bids sub fitted to the board of commissioners were open. AS a consequence bids were enade for all kinds of street paving, in- cluding asphalt. Bitulithic, brick and the superiority of each material over the other was stoutly contended for by the rival bidders,
 As G direct consequence of this plan, saving of nearly s17,o0o to the property holders was made, as a bid of s140 was submitted and accepted against sl.75 for the same paving by the same company on q former contract short time ago.
 The three contracts awarded to the Me Garth company call for the paving of Nineteenth street north from Sixth ave- nue to Huntsville avenue, Twenty-sxth rtraat north from, 1T{ohtb avept1a to Eff teenth avenue, and Twelfth avenue to nhirty-second street, connecting with Norwood avenue. The material to be rsed on these contracts will be Standard sheet asphalt. the contract price of all si.40 per square yard.
 The Southern Asphalt and Construction company secured the contract to pave Thirtieth street south from Highland ave- hue to Highland avenue and Twenty-sixth street south from Avenue H to Madison avenue the material being asphalt-con- crete at sl39 per square yard. c. 1I. Burkhalters bid of SS cents to pave one block of Avalon street with two coats of binder macadam was accepted
 The city attorney was instructed to draw up ordinances to authorize this work, which will be commenced as soon
 
 piled with.
 At the meeting yesterday were Presi- dent Exum, Commissioners Lane and Weatherly, City Engineer Nicholson, City Attorney Romaine Boyd, representatives of all the competing paving companies. material experts and a number of prop erty holders and citizens interested in the paving contracts. Bids were submitted by the McCartin Paving and Construction company, the Southern Paving and Con struction company, the Southern Asphalt and Construction company, the Southern Bithultic company. the Graves-Dunston Paving company, c. M. Burkhalter and , Dunn & Laande.
 President Exum announced the meet ing open and said that the commission was ready to hear from the representa- tives of the several contracting com panies. The Graves-Dunston company asked permission to change their bid, which was refused.
 MT. Donaldson spoke on the superior merits of the Burmuda and Trinidad island asphalt and introduced W. L. For rest, an expert from the New York Test ing laboratory, who explained in detail the formation of the asphalt deposits of the islands, and claimed it was greatly superior to the asphalt manufactured in this country. He said that the natural asphalt had a greater cohesive quality than the manufactured articles and had other decided advantages.
 John McCartin spoke in defense of the manufactured article and read a number of statements from city authorities where is was extensively used who recommended 1t highly. He said that if there was any difference in quality it was more than overcome by the difference in price, the natural imported article costing milch more than that manufactured at home Several others spoke in favor of the home $ product. It was asserted that it was the # equal in wearing qualities to the im- ported asphalt In the opinion of many N of the speakers the latter was much over S eoasd.
 # John R. Copeland, George Ingram, Col |6 onel Dunston and several others spoke # on the merits of their respective paving material, each urging the city could not err by accepting their respective bids. The representative of the Wood Paving ~ company, which had not submitted any f& bid, suggested that all the bids be re- 't* 5ected and that the commissioners con- z sider the wood pavement which he stated E had proved very satisfactory elsewhere.
 Colonel Dunston advocated the brick pavement as being superior to any sug- a& gested. He stated that it had the de- W cided advantage of being easily repaired and removed in the event that excava- lions had to be made in the street, and Y that its wearing qualities were the equal E 3f not superior to any of the pavements 0uggested.
 .l4* There was a spirit of keen rivalry # Among the representatives of the several Accompanies making the bids and the de- Meets, real or imaginary, of each pave nent suggested was pointed out to the Commissioners.
 f{The commissioners have had the ques- pn of paving these streets under con- I& Iteration for some time They have 1ade many investigations and informed
 emselves on the various materials used
 street paving. The specifications Hing for the Improvements were broad
 "a eslch bid had to be strictly in accord
 lth them to be even considered. Since D bids were opened about two weeks ago
 Ad tabulated by the city engineer, the
 Dmmssioners have had many confer
 lces on the matter and the morits of
 bch bid were carefully considered
 The contracts awarded last night are
 le first large contracts for street paw
 entered into by the city commis-
 pners. Previous to taking up the street
 vement matter, the commissioners dis
 Jed of several items of routine work,
 duding the passing of payrolls and the
 option of Commissioner Weatherly' s Oeolution to light the alleys of the city.
 PROMOTION
 EVERY MAN WHO BELIEVES THAT