The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-11

phalt. The advertisements for this work were in part as follows:
 "The Superintendent of Streets in- ViteS proposals for 'aspha lting' and | regulating streets The contractor will | furnish his own specifications for the asphalt, stating the kind he will fur | nish and also the price per square | yard.'
 The streets are at present in excel | lent condition. No apology is offered | for the price, but it was probably as l low as could be obtained at the time. i or at the present time, for the small | quantity of pavement laid. and was | lower than the price for Bitulithic. Incidentally, the custom now fol- lowed at City Hall of printing several pages of recondite or ambiguous phra-
 ses in city paving contracts, under the title of Bitulithic Specifications. en-
 tails a waste of public money as all
 essential information would be the | following: tWarren Brothers Com
 pany's Bitulithic pavement will be ad-
 mitted in equal competition with the types of bituminous pavement speci- | fed"
 l Warren Brothers Company inquires: | II
 thickness costs only GA cents per sq yd. why should your Con sulting Engineer as Superintendent of Streets contract for three inches
 of sheet asphalt ' at prices rang
 ing from sl.5O to s2.o0 per yard for | such construction, when three inches
 of Topeka, according to his statement
 would have cost only 96 cents?" I ( tot h pto
 belief that Topeka should be used as
 substitute for standard sheet as- pha1t. He believes. however. that the
 material is suitable, when properly laid, for pavements in the same class of streets in which Bitulithic is suit able, that is, streets with light horse | drawn traffic and automobile traffic, at
 a much lower price than for Bitulithic | Also, the writer was not at the time acquainted with the merits of Tope-
 ka mixture, and it appears that the | decision of Julge Pollock in the Tope- ka case, which made the mixture
 available for general use, was not filed until May 26, 1910, about the time
 the writer went out of office, i. e., June
 ', 1910.
 As regards brick pavement laid in | | ment of Warren Brothers Company
 that "Your Consulting Engineer as | Superintendent of Streets of the City of Boston, laid a number of streets
 with brick pavements in 1909, | which brick pavements are generally already in wretched condition" is not | borne out by the facts. These brick pavements were laid largely on ac- count of enthusiastic recommendations of such pavements. after an cxamina- | ton of such pavements in the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, city with which Warren Brothers Company is not entirely unacquainted. The work secured in Boston, on account of un- foreseen contingencies due to a new | ly enacted sewer statute, on account of which many trenches were dug in the streets at the same time the pave
 merts were being laid, was not of as good quality as might have been ob- tained These pavements have al- ready been discussed both in the pub lished and unpublished reports of the Finance Commission.
 The streets in general, however, are
 in excellent condition and good for
 many years further service.
 As regards the Morton Street pave ment, Warren Brothers Company
 states that bituminous concrete
 claimed to be tas, good as Bitulithic
 was laid at a cost of 67 cents per sq. yd. for surface only in 1909." A mis- take was undoubtedly made by a sub-
 ordinate of the Street Department,
 who allowed the contractor to deviate from the specifications. after state
 ment that the quality of asphalt called for could not be immediately obtain
 ed This permission was unfortunate
 and. coupled with the foundation of
 some parts of Morton Street. undoubt-
 edly secured a poorer pavement than
 might have been obtained. The wri-f ter has no recollection or record of ever making the "claim" attributed to
 him by Warren Brothers Company
 and doubts if 1t ever was made. The
 statement, however, is probably true
 as regards home of the Bitulithic laid
 by Warren Brothers Company. 9th
 CT examples of Bitulithic are undoubt- edly of better quality than was the
 Morton Street pavement. The cost
 per square yard. 67 cents is significant,
 as showing the approximate proper
 price for Bitulithic or other coarse ag- SroRal6 COHCTclS pave ments. As regards the pavement on Hunt ington avenue in the neighborhood of the Opera House, although the writer
 has no actual figures of cost, the pre-
 diction is made that the figures will show it to have cost less for repairs than the Bitulithic pavement on Dart
 mouth street, from Stuart street to Cooley Square, for an equal length of service.
 The writer, with the advantages of aftersight, frankly admits errors in judgment by himself and his subor- dinates during his terms as Superin- tandent of Streets. He trusts that he l has profited by these errors sufficiently to prev ent in some measure the foist- ing on the city of Boston of inferior
 pavements at exorbitant prices. The length of the foregoing state-
 menr has been necessary in order to submit e,-iderce to refute the bald
 statements of Warren Brothers Com pany's letters. For convenience the
 essential points are summarized as follows:
 N1.--ta) Eight samples of Bitulith-. ic examined show the average weight two inches thick to be approximately 232 pounds per square yard.
 (b) A weight of 286 pounds per square yard, as claimed by Warren Brothers, Company. is physically inn