The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-07
COSTLY CONDUITS
 HALT STRATFORD
 AVE BRIDGE PLANS
Trolley Wires and Big Wa ter Pipes Where Piers Must Come
City Plan Commission Did Not Consider Under Water
 Conditions Before

Though details are now being work ed out by the Stratford avenue bridge commission from tentative plans ofrer- ed by the City Planning mission, it would appear that investigators have entirely overlooked the inn knense conduMts sunk in the Pequon- nook river just north of the present EfuatforVd avenue bridge and which run in such a manner as to almost preclude abuttments and pters for a new bridge being built on the spot proposed by the City Planning Com
 mission.
 An aDproxaanaHed cost of between S10O. GOO ana $12o 900 to the city, for ma terfaH alone, not even considering the property and other damage, If the an- inounced p4ams for a new S1matford avenue bridge are put into emect was the startling revelation made by che engineers of the trolley and water counramfes today.
 | General Manager Charles EE. Chap man of the Connecticut Go. in discuss 1 ing the nafber today admitted thait from published diagrams of Hhe pro- posed structure, engineers employed l by the company had already made 1prehnndnaRy investigation and find that If the permanent structure is built as now tentatively considered, ld dt would mean the denlo1iSmneut Of about $40. 900 worth of subway built
 
 addition to t11is there would be an additional expense of building tenn porary carriers for the trolley feed c1fstri buting wires which would cost nearly as much as a new under-rfver I conduit
 The Bridgeport Hydraulic Go. has l had constructed a big six-foot pipe I line under the river at this point at an expense of $50, ,00o and would be similarly effected.
 ~. ~ l. | ing for his company, today said:
 While have not seen any definite plans for the new bridge abIuttnents I and piers, published reports of the l proposed location are such as in the 1 311leuaenh of our engineers would en- I tail great expense to the city, not from a property valuation stand point TI but from tine loss of actual material. 1 It will be recalled that our company ! brings all it's distributing wires from
 the Seaside avenue power house to a point just north of the bridge where
 sl is distributed in a small hodise.
 Flrom that point to the westerly shore Of tine Pequonnock, we constructed a
 five foot conduit some years ago at
 an expense of about $4O,00 This
 was extremely difficult owing to bot tom conditions and many will recall the big pipes Ebuckhng during course Iof construction and rising to the sur face of the river.
 I Unless the fnal plans for the new bridge are different from those re- cently made public the piers for the proposed structure. or at least the caissons necessary to sink them prop
 erly might rupture the present, pipe
 line at great danger to the present !. trolley traffic.
 ssAs our current cannot be suspend 1 even for a temporary period, we
 would in addition to building another
 tunnel, becompelled to make provis-
 ion for carrying our wires overhead
 across the river This would cosi
 many t7lousands of dollars
 While our pipes run directly across
 the river paraIled to the present
 bridge, the pipes of. the Bridgeport Fly
 draulic Go. which are six feet in dia-
 meter, run from this side of the river diagonalIy across to Nichols street
 making it almost a physical imposs1- bi1lty for piers for the new str-l1ts- ture to be laid on that side without cutting the pipeline.
 ssT am sure from what engineers
 have told me that it would be both
 difficult and extremely expensive to the
 city to build this bridge as contern-
 plated and leave the old structure standing to acconlmod traffic. ] fear that in planning for the new bridge those in charge have failed te ! look beneath the murly waters fol the real damage that would result Charles D. Davis, chairman of the
 City Planning Commission, said today
 that only property rights, arteries oi traffic, etc, had been studied as yet while the Bridge Commission had been requested to investigate further and make a later report. The com mission has not considered the loca- tion of the big. pipes, but has planned to locate the new bridge just north o1 that now spanning the river, so thad the old structure might be used while
 a new one was being built.
 It is the hope of the City Planning
 Commission that the city will buy al the property in the region of the east
 Yellow Mill bridge.
 It is the belief of the commission
 that with the new frontages tfla-
 would be. made the city could realize a nice profit from the sale of sucF lands as are not used by the bridge approach proper.