The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-20
Thin Foundations, Spongy
 Gravel, Scant Supervision
 Among Street Complaints
tContinued From Page Five)

h)SA IVY So (Continued From Page F1ve) prove that they really had the interest of the people at heart while in the pub lice office"
 Henry Page Burruss, commissioner of public improvements, said
 "The crux of the whole matter
 as to street preservation and im- provemenfs in the city of Birming-
 ham Is that the city hns never pro-
 vided a distinct maintenance poll
 icy for the streets nor n reasonable
 provision in the way of money for
 the practical upkeep of our streets
 in a good condition for traffic and
 travel.
 ITO put the city in good condition as to streets two things are neces- sary-first, the restoration of the streets to a reasonably good condition. and second. the provision of a suffi- cient maintenance fund in order that the streets may be kept in a good con dition for the future.
 Until these two things are done, and well done, the people of Birming- ham will never have any comfort or satisfaction in the use and enjoyment of their streets. It is my hope to assist in some small degree to bring about such wholesome policy and such a reasonable provision for our whole street system.
 T think public sentiment is daily growing more in favor of good and better streets"
 w. H. Brooks. of the Standard Fuel and Material Company. said:
 "The trouble with our streets Is
 thnt the proper material is not used
 in their construction. Bank run
 gravel, that is the mixture of sand
 and pebbles ms it comes from ordi-
 nary gravel hank, is unfitted for
 use in concrete work. It has cer-
 tain vegetable and other matter in
 it that will cause the concrete to
 crack and break. However, some
 contracting com mpanies use it. It is
 cheaper and more money cun be
 made out of contract where it Is
 part of the material. s& M
 "All material that goes Into our streets should be Carefully tested and none that fails to meet the standard should be used.
 Another thing those in charge should give especial attention to the paving of the streets and highways that will have the most and heaviest traffic. For instance, I notice a pave ment is being laid on Avenue which is parallel Q Avenue F. which has a fine pavement Probably the work on Avenue G should have been placed on some other section where it is not a parallel street in good condition for through traffic."
 APPROVES RESILIENCY
 John Donelson, who in this territory represents Warren Bros, the largest paving concern in the United States, said yesterday that it was mistake to say that Birmingham's paving is all in bad shape.
 "Ihe main trouble in Birming-
 ham is that paving has not been
 kept in condition, hut the streets
 here are in better shape than In
 any city within 800 miles," said Mir.
 DonelsOn. .F0r the past ten years
 Birmingham has attempted to keep
 up its pavements on an appropria-
 tion of about $iO.OOO a year. The
 city has approximately million
 yards of pavement. This means
 that less than . cent a yard per
 year has been spent in keeping
 the city's pavements in shape. Not
 even . suit of good clothes could
 stand that kind of treatment.
 When you consider that much of our city pavement is from seventeen to twenty years old, it has really held up magnificently, considering the small amounts lHdt nave oeeH spent upon it.
 Tn the matter of laying new pave ments my company stands absolutely for something which has been basis of contention in recent paving matters here. We believe in resilient base. We think hard. unyielding base such as concrete no matter how thick 1t is, will pound to pieces with heavy mod ern traffic conditions. We build five times as much pavement as any other concern in the United States. and ous years of experience have shown us that broken stone, slag, chert or some such material with a proper binder is the ideal base for pavement. Suppose a railroad track were laid on a rigid foundation. The heavy pounding of the cars would tear the foundation to pieces no matter what it was com posed of Road traffic presents the same problem. The Foundation must have resilieney. It must yield when strains are put upon 1t. If something does not yield, then something is go- ing to break. and a rigid base will break every time. This is not theory, but it is practice. My years of ex- perience as a practical paving engi- neer, constantly out on the job watch- ing the work. prove the correctness of my views
 Most of the pavement in Birming- ham was good pavement when it was put down. About ten years ago, how ever, the city got an economical streak and put down some pavement which has been a great disappointment. You can look over the city today and you will find that the pavement that is in the best condition is the pavement with the resilient base. I am not in politics , and don't want to get into any contro- versy on the question, but in paving, as in anything else, the best practice is to follow the advice of the practical, trained, experienced, paving engineers If their advice is followed the authori- ties will get the worth of their money