New Britain herald., 1914-04-28
CITY ENGINEER HAS
 BROKEN ALL RECORDS
F. H. 0,dcrShaW and Staff Establish New Mark for That Department.

eer r. H. Oldershaw for the past tis- cal year has been completed and is ready for presentation to the board of public works. The report gives an insight to the amount of work done by the city engineers office, the greatest amount that has ever been done in the city.
 The report follows:
 "For the past few years the work of this department has been gradually increasing, and it is very evident that the volume of work as accomplished in it's various branches and details exceeds that of any previous year. The work, however, has progressed smoothly and all as ordered has been carried out successfully and accurate ly. Notwithstanding the increase in the amount, the department has been able to successfully cope with the same. As we all know, there is no better investment a city can make than good roads, roads that will with stand the wear and tear of present day traffic and require the least out lay for maintenance. The dayN of wa ter bound macadam except on resi- dential streets of very light trafnc have gone by and to build road that will not ravel and disintegrate under the wear and tear of traffic and the destructive influence of the changes of weather and temperature, it is nec- essary to bind together the stone or metal of the macadam with some form of cement. This has been tried out on two sections of road work this year in the form of amiesite as laid on Franklin square and also on West Main street west of Black Rock bridge and has proven complete success. Over a mile of this pave ment was laid on these two streets.
 During the year permanent pave ment was laid on West Main street from High street to the bridge, thus putting West Main street in fine con- dition throughout it's entire length, 9,6G5 yards of Mack, brick and 7,659 feet of U. s. wood block were laid on this street by the Union Paving com pany of Schenectady, N. Y., the work being done in accordance with plans and specifications for the same as drawn up by the city engineer and under his personal supervision. Dur ing the year six streets were macad- amized and ten streets were graded to the official grade for the same. The macadamizing was helped along to large extent this year by the fact that all the curbs were laid ahead of the work and thus the work was not delayed by waiting for curbs to be put in by delinquent property owners. This matter, in regard to curbs should be the continued prac- tice of the board, so that there may be no delay in macadam work when it isFonce started.
 1.-TWO concrete bridges were built I 1nto bridges, one on Stee:e street and one on McClintock street. the work being done by the Hall Construction com pany according to plans and speci- fications drawn by the city engineer.
 Grades and lines were laid out by the engineering department whereby 25,O19 feet of flag and concrete walks were laid on forty-one different streets 5,526 feet of walks have been relaid on twenty-one streets. 25, ,76O feet of new curbs have been con- Structed on thirty-four streets, Il, 428 feet of curbs have been relaid on four streets, 11,156 feet of streets have been graded and 6,196 feet of trolley tracks relaid to the official grade of the streets. During the year forty curb returns were laid at street intersections, where street im- provements were made or contem- plated.
 '"rhis year has proven the banner year in regard to the amount of sewer work accomplished. All the work has Leen done by local labor under the superintendency of M. F. O'Brien. There have been built during the year 19,694 feet, or 3.73 miles, of sewers, of which 1.3 miles were sanitary sew
 Iav~ c,to x,nf0 drains. These sewers were built in eighteen different streets in the city and four rights of way. In their con- struction fifty-three manholes and fifteen catch basins were built. Twenty seven catch basins and six receivers were constructed on old sewers and fourteen of the basins were built to replace old receivers, the remainder being new basins. All sewer work as laid out for the season was com pleted in full and surveys and plans have already been completed for lateral sewers on several streets for the coming year, but from the out look the sewer work will not be as heavy as last year
 During the year the remainder of the filter beds were overhauled and
 the underdrains were relaid. The work proved a success and has with cut doubt added to the efficiency of the system. Weir readings were under- taken at the beds this year and other data collected for use in studying the details of the system with regard to still further improving the efficiency of the filtration system.
 There have been no extensions made to the subway system this year, 1,,,% 1,,,., ,hn,. r,f 1,<o ,1g, hnx been laid for the different companies occupying space in the subway. large number of new laterals were 1iI cif fnfo hxr mo