Evening star., 1928-11-16
PLAN URGES PAVING.
WORK COMMITTED
COORDINATION to Supervise All
Street improvements Sug-
geSted by WhitehurSt.

Details Of q plan for conserving the
Districts $55,00o,000 investment in its
street pavements by supervision of all
work necessitating tearing UP Of streets
were made public today by Assistant
Engineer Commissioner Herbert c.
WhitehurSt, who has executive SUPER
vision over the highway department.
His recommendation, which was made
IN q report to Engineer Commissioner
William B. Ladue, calls for creation OF
a committee consisting of the three as
Sistant engineer commissioners, the di-
rector of trafic and the chief clerk of
the engineer department.
This committee would be instructed to
call on other department heads to OBJ
tain whatever material and information
was necessary and then draw up plan
for coordinated supervision OF all street
work. The plan would be submitted to
Col. Ladue and through him to the Dis
trict of Columbia Commissioners for ap-
proval.
Second Recommendation.
This was Whitehurst's second recon-
mendation and was made In the form
of an amendment to the first recon-
mendation submitted October 2. In the
first recommendation, he advised for
mation Of public Improvements board
to be headed by coordinator, who
would be either an official Of the High :
way Department or an Independent Of
fcer appointed for this task. The COM
mittee and the coordinator would be
called upon to arrange sequence OF
all work to be done involving cuts in
streets by any District agency, public
utility committee or building company.
- kHaa ha
to tie up the street as little as possible
and to tighten regulations calling for
backfllls to cuts made in the pavements.
In my judgment, there is no cure
for the situation In all its phases unless
some one person Is placed In charge of
the coordination Of all public improve.
ment, Its construction, program and
sequence" Capt. WhitehurSt wrote. HE
must not only have authority over Dis
trict departments but public utility
companies also. In short, the entire
public improvement program must be
under one coordination head, whether
this head has control and supervision OF
the work or whether he merely dictates
ject."
Whitehurst Explains.
with respect to the committee on
underground construction previous to
paving, which now undertakes some of
the functions outlined by Whitehurst,
he wrote: "1n Justice to the under.
ground committees work, I must state
that since my connection with the Dis
trict, know Of only two cases in the
thousands handled where it was neces.
eary to cut new work through failure
70 obtain releases. We have had cases
OF an emergency nature caused by
leaks and improvements in abutting
property which necessitated larger serv.
ice connections or larger trunklines, but
the engineer Of highways has never
paved street or repaved 1t until every
agency has released it or stated they
intended to do certain work in con-
nection with the paving.
"The activities Of District depart
Inents," Whitehurst continued, "and
utility companies have greatly increased
in the last few years, so that old
methods and plans Of operation and
organisation, while adequate when
adopted, viii not meet the situation
today nor will they stand UP under the
increased demands. It is these that
should be studied and revised to meet
the changed conditions"
WhitehurSt urged that II Commits
sioner Ladue approved this procedure
It would be well TO have the committee
function at the earliest possible date.
Whatever plan Is adopted, It Is i'm
perative that It be put into operation
at the start Of the next working season."
he wrote, "but in order to do 80 the
necessary preparatory work must be
done this Fan and Winter"