The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1917-03-29
DRAINAGE WORK
WILL HAVE TO
BE OVERHAULED.
Little River Engineer Bum
gIed Project, Construction
Officials Declare.
LEVEE 3 FEET LOWER
THAN U. s. REQUIRES
By Attempting 10 Pad Bank Has
Caused it to Slide, Filling
Canal.

The work that has been done on the
diversion channel of the Little River
Drainage project may have to be re-
vamped, according to the men who are
employed on the project, and an eff
fort to hang the blame for the bungle
on the Floesch Construction Company
is one of the reasons for the row that
is now threatening to tie-up the whole
project.
According to the construction ex-
perts, William O'Brien, the engineer in
charge of the work, was so inaccurate
in his estimates that the. whole job is
threatening to collapse. The story of
the cause of the trouble between the
Little River Drainage District and the
Floesch Construction Company, was
related to The Tribune yesterday by a
man who is in a position to speak off,
cially. He said:
"The whole trouble is due to En-
gineer O'Brien's mistakes. The slope
of the levee should have been what is
technically known as to 1, but Mr..
O'Brien ordered it to /. The levee
is now three feet lower than the Gov
eminent requires.
when it was discovered that the
levee was under the Governments re-
quirements, the Floesch Construction
Company was ordered to pile dirt on
the levee to make up the deficiency. As
the slope had not been made to take
care of such quantity of extra dirt,
the banks began to slide. At last it
has been realized that the levee can
not stand with the added dirt. To pile
new dirt on the banks would cause the
drainage channel to fail because Of
constant slides, which could not be
prevented, especially after heavy rains.
"The Floesch Construction Company
did not enter into a contract to build
a levee. We agreed to do the exca-
waiting work only, and contracted to
remove the dirt at ten cents per yard.
We never agreed to build the levees.
but have been doing this work under
the supervision of Engineer O'Brien
We simply followed his instructions
and we now find the whole project will
have to be worked over. We can't
make levee that will meet with the
approval of the Government out of
the present bank"
A meeting of the Drainage District
and the Floesch Construction Com
pany officials was held yesterday in
the Observation-Disclosures Building
in an effort to reach an agreement.
One official-of the construction COM
pany last night said there was still
hope that an agreement could be reach
ed, but nothing definite would be
known for at least three days. He
refused to discuss the conference held
yesterday. All officials, who took
part in the meeting, would not dis
cuss what TRANSFERRED.
All that can be learned of the con-
troversy is obtained from men who are
employed by the construction COM
pany.
The Drainage company is contend
ing that the Floesch concern should
revise the work in order that the
levee will meet with the approval of
the Government. The construction
company says it had not contracted to
construct levee, and is therefore not
responsible for the work. The drain
age company is going to refuse to
pay the construction concern until the
work has been brought up to the Gov
eminent requirements, it is said, and
this threat has virtually brought the
work to stop.
The Floesch company is going to
bring suit for violation of contract
against the Little River Drainage
District, it became known Saturday. 1t
is said that attorneys for the construc-
ton company are now preparing the
petition.