The copper era and Morenci leader., 1913-12-05
ENGINEER McILVEEN'S RE

Clifton, Ariz., Dec. 8, 1913 Messrs. Bennie, Carmichael ant
 Thomson,
 Gentlemen:-
 I have read, in a careful manner
 the reply of the Board of Supervis
 ors to your letter which appeared ir the Copper Era of Nov. 14th, rela
 tive to the new county roads now under construction, and knowing that have been responsible for the con tents of your letter, having passed up on it before it went to press, I make this report to you, answering in turn each point presented in the Boards letter, and I ask of you to publish this reply.
 l notice an assertion in the latter part of the Boards letter saying that your entire complaint is simply a mass of miS-Statements made in ig- norance of the facts, or with the de- Iliberate purpose to mislead the pub- lie as to the real facts. If these are mis-statements then I alone am res ponsible for them as you have been guided wholly by my reports. There is one statement in your let ter that should be corrected under the heading, 'Metcalf Road," the as sertion, walls are defective where walls have been built,' and should read some walls are defective"
 In answer to the first paragrah un- der the title ''Duncan-Richmond road" the Board has stated that while the road has not yet been accepted it is practically finished. This was writ ten as late as Dec. 2nd. On Friday, Nov. Fist, I went to Duncan to as- certain what effect, if any, the recent rain had had upon the road in ques- tion. On Saturday afternoon, Nov. 22nd, I met the Superintendent of County roads who informed me that he had been authorized by the Chair man of the Board to go to work upon this Duncan-Richmond road, which work I believe was done on or about Nov. 24th.
 The fact that the proper county of ficial authorized the doing of work upon this road constitutes, beyond doubt, an acceptance of the road.
 On Saturday, Nov 1st, drove over this road with the contractor, MT. Nations, and he told me that he had finished the work and expected Ithe Board down to accept it the fol lowing day. The fact is that the Chairman of the Board and the Coun- ty Surveyor were down the following day, Nov. 2nd.
 The paragraph entitled 'Dimens-
  Duncan-Richmond road reads as fol lows: At grade the roadbed shall be as staked on the ground and not less than 20 feet in minimum width,' while the paragraph entitled Road bed' reads as follows: 'The road bed shall be surfaced to a uniform crown as shown in the plans. Be tween those stations shown on the profile where graveling is specified a layer of four (4) inches of coarse gravel shall be spread across the en- tire roadbed. This means then that inches of coarse gravel shall be spread across a 20 foot roadway. The facts in this case are these: The ''graveling" is not done with gravel at all, but with a sand taken from the Gila river and this sand has an average width of 13 feet instead of 20 feet.
 My first inspection of this road was on Oct. 3O-31, and Nov. 1st. At that time no dry rubble walls had been built to protect drain pipes, nor had any rp-rapping been done, though both of these are called for in the specifications and shown in the plans.
 My second inspection trip over the Duncan road was made on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 21 and p, on this occasion l 1OunQ l1ttle mounds or stones piled up over culvert pipes and from 42 to IS inches from the ends of the pipes. All mounds were built alike, and no effort had been made to fit the stones around the pipe mouths. These were dragged off the road when the road superintend- ent went over it.
 The specifications call for rip-rap- ping as follows: At those points shown on the profile where rip-rapp ing is required a trench three feet 1 shall be dug and willow posts set not more than three feet apart and a facing of brush rip-rapping shall be woven between the posts to protect | the fills from the action of the river water" I was unable to find any | such rip-rapping on my trip over the | road, but did see lot of tree branches lying alongside of the road where it | approaches closest to the river.
 Revertins to the condition of the | road after the rains of Nov. 20 and | 21, l noticed that it was full of mud i holes from 12 to 15 inches deep be- | tween stations 50 and 70, distance