The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1922-07-24
CONCRETE PAVING
JOB IS NOW CLOSE
To COMPLETION
West Main Street Should Be
Open before Many Days
DEFINITE DATE NOT FIXED
Preliminary Work Has Consum-
ed Time, but Real Progress
Is Now Being Made
DEFINITE DATE NOT FIXED

The West Main street road project
is "on the skids' as construction
men say when a Job is beginning to
round out so that the greater part
of the work remaining to be done
is such that il makes big showing.
The pavement on the southern
half Of the sreet from the Bottum
and Torrance corner to the village
limits has been laid. The curb and
gutter extending the same distance
but on the northern side of the high.
way was practically completed Wed.
northern half Of the main slab to be
poured between the completed strip
on the one side and the curb on he
other.
Even the uninitiated can readily
undertand that no forms are neces.
sary to make this run because Of the
finished work on either side. The
galvanized mesh, used In double lay.
ers for reinforcement, is distributed
along where it can be easily reached
for placement in the wet concrete. As
long as plenty Of sand, trap.rock and
cement are kept ahead of the work,
the big Koehring mixer will make
short work OF this strip to Mil treet.
Aside from having the curb and
gutter on the southern side of the
street, to run west as far as the cul-
vert near Convent avenue, and some
back-hlling and grading behind the
curbs on both sides OF the street. the
western half of the job is fast near
ing completion. No curb and gutter
will be laid on the southern side OF
the road, from the culyert westward
as the city officials feel that the un.
developed land on that side does not
warrant the extra expense. In time,
should some home builder decide to
erect a house or house In this anglo
OF land between the Rutland railroad
track and the road, doubtessly a
curb will be built.
Although the entire Job has gone on
as whole, there have been two
nearly separate divisions. The first
Is from the Rutland crossing at Depot
street to Mil street corner. The
second from that point on out to tho
village limits. It was impossible to
carry the work from one end to the
other and return because the Berk.
shire street railway tracks had to be
relayed with In the first section. Tho
western part is somewhat longer, and
aside from having no tracks, the road
oil l..
poured in a shorter time The grad.
ing Of both sections required nearly
an equal amount of work The sur.
face excavated from the eastern part
was used for full on the hill near
Old Bennington.
None of the curbng on THE eastern
section has been laid But the
north outside strip of tie main slab
is down and can beused for a road.
way for the trucks and teams haul
ing in material for other parts of the
work A large gasoline mixer of the
self propeling type is pouring the
strip between the rails When that
is done the machine will probably at
once begin placing the south side
curb on the east section Blu that
time the Koehring will habe made
MIL street corner and will come
along eastward pouring the last piece
Of main slab, namely that on the
southern side of the street No forms
will be necessary here, because the
last run will be made between the
track and the curb slabs. While the
big mixer is doing its last quarter.
the other machine will be working on
the north side curb
On a paving job, such as the West
Main stree project, pouring concrete
is really the least of the trouble.
There are sewers, manholes surface
drains at each side of the street,
tracks, excavations, fills, traffic, etc
with which to contend
The writer once worked for an
Italian superintendent, who was not
only energetic but brainy. Concrete
was this mans by-word
Experience taught him that the df.
ficuit propositions that had to be
done before the pouring were eaters
of time and money The worst OF
them was that they made almost no
showing But once the concrete was
placed in a specific part of the job,
it stood like seal of completion.
Neither Il. H. Mclean, superintend
ent for the Hassam Paving company,
the concern doing the work, nor
Henry Parkhurst, who is handling the
engineering end of the work as a
representative for II, E.s Breed and
the village can say definitely when
the work will be done, But is probab
ly safe to say, unless something very
unforeseen occurs, that the job will
be crying for water in another two or