Evening star., 1934-08-14
PAVING
||NREROUT|NGPLAN
TO HIT TAXPAYERS
Cost of Replacing Aban-
doned Track Will Fall
Entirely on City.
ESTIMATES DRAFTED
ON VARIOUS SCHEMES
Preliminary Hearings on Pro-
posals Start Tomorrow in
District Building.

No matter which of the street car
rerouting plans thus far offered is
put into effect, it appeared today, the
public is going to be called upon to
foot a substantial bill for the paving
that goes with it.
All of the plans call for considerable
track abandonment-for instance, the
LIE Droit Park line and the line on P
street west of Dupont Circle. Some
of them call, in addition, for aban-
donment of track forming the north
ern end of the Fourteenth street line
in Takoma Park. All of them sug-
gest abandonment of most Of the
Ninth street line.
Under the merger act the street
car company is required to pay half
of the cost for paving and repaving
the track space when the work is
undertaken as part of a project for
major repairs to tracks, and also to
pay half Of the cost Of maintaining
the paving in the track structures.
All on Taxpayer.
Abandoning trackage means that
the taxpayers assume the entire bur-
den of paving, repaving and main
tanning the space formerly occupied
by tracks.
Some of the plans call for widening
streets. For instance, if tracks are
to be brought down Fifteenth street
from H street to New York avenue
as suggested in some Of the plans
Fifteenth street must be wldened. The
Traffic Advisory Council is already
on record as favoring widening the
street now, even without car tracks
There are also a few special cases
where abandoning tracks would near
that the entire street would be re-
paved. On P street, for instance
west of Dupont Circle, the abandon.
ment of tracks would mean a great
increase in automobile traffic on that
highway. This would lead to prompt
demands of motorists for a surface
superior to the cobblestones with
which 1t is now paved. This would
be especially true if, as planned, the
route of the Burleith bus line L
shifted from @ to P streets.
No Estimate Available.
No estimate of the amount of tax
payers money at stake in the various
rerouting plans was available today
but Highway Director H. C. White
hurst is engaged on an engineering
study Of all the plans, and will have
accurate estimates on the highway
costs Of each inserted in the record
of the public hearings on rerouting
when the estimates are completed.
The hearings start at 10 am. to-
morrow in the offices of the Public
Utilities Commission in the District
Building. and the preliminary stage,
during which all plans so far ad-
vanced will be read into the record, is
expected to last the rest of the week,
or longer.
During this preliminary stage, any,
body will be allowed to ask questions
designed to clarity the various plans
being put forward, according to Chair
man Riley E. Elgen of the commits
sion, but general discussion will be
deferred.
Beeler First Witness.
Tomorrow the first witness will be
John A. Beeler, transit expert re-
tanned by the commission, who will
submit three rerouting plans. After
him will come Fred A. Sager, the
chief engineer of the commissions
staff, who will submit three others.
They will be followed either by John
H. Hanna, president Of the Capital
Transit Co., or by a representative of
the National Capital Park and Plan
ming Commission, each with additional
plans.
After that other interested persons
may present plans, and the hearing
then will recess for several weeks to
allow study of the various plans. 1t
is expected to reconvene for discus
sion in the middle of September.