USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1891 > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
The following provision of ordinance became operative May 2 :--
"Every sewer or drain, laid in any land, or street, or way, public or private, opened, or proposed to be opened, for public travel and accommodation, for the purpose of draining more than one estate, shall be deemed to be a common sewer, and no such common sewer shall be laid or connected with any existing common sewer, except by the city. No person shall cut into, interfere with, or obstruct a main drain or common sewer, or shall enter, or attempt to enter, a private or other drain or sewer therein, or into any private drain connecting with any main drain or common sewer, except in accord- ance with a permit in writing from the city engineer."
Before its adoption many sewers were laid in private streets by the land-owners, under the supervision of the city engineer, but it was oftentimes exceedingly difficult, and even impossible, practically, to have all proper requirements complied with. The sewers, too, after their completion, were not the property of the city, and the city, therefore, was not charged with their maintenance. Complica-
286
ANNUAL REPORTS.
tions were also liable to arise in assessing for common sewers subsequently laid in front of lands provided with these private sewers; and altogether the provisions of the ordinance seemed highly necessary. Only a few months have passed since the ordi- nance took effect, but its workings during that short period have been satisfactory to this committee.
For the committee,
ALBERT W. EDMANDS, Chairman. WILLIAM P. MITCHELL, Clerk.
287
SEWERS BUILT IN 1891.
STREET.
FROM.
To.
Length in Feet.
Total Cost.
Assessment.
Cost to City.
Alpine
Cedar St.
Easterly
653.2
$1,120 54
$1,119 79
$0 75
Atherton
Central St. :
Near Beach St.
237.8
330 44
328 37
2 07
Ayer Ave.
Morrison Ave.
Near Frederick Ave.
604.6
680 86
670 65
10 21
Belmont .
Highland Ave.
Southwesterly .
565.1
652 09
651 22
87
Benton Ave.
Hudson St.
Near Highland Ave.
205.0
181 33
178 56
2 77
Broadway
Adams St.
Northwesterly .
339.3
332 84
326 63
6 21
Burnside Ave. .
Elm St.
Near Summer St. .
678.8
1,013 37
960 37
53 00
Calvin
Washington St.
Near Dimick St.
466.2
513 77
501 14
12 63
Carver
Porter St.
Westerly .
170.7
133 50
132 61
89
Concord Ave.
Dimick St.
Near Beacon St.
206.8
248 56
225 45
23 11
Conwell
.
.
Francis St.
300.2
1
409 35
408 17
1 18
Francis
Conwell St.
Westerly .
164.0
93 22
93 15
07
Cypress
Central St.
Near Beach St.
207.1
161 40
161 06
34
Elston
Elm St.
Near Summer St.
350.8
323 25
320 43
2 82
Lawrence
Richardson St. .
Cutler St.
239.6
175 87
175 49
38
Miner .
Vernon St.
Northeasterly
167.3
134 63
133 69
94
Nashua
Richardson St. .
Southwesterly
162.0
120 73
120 55
18
Newbury .
End of old sewer
Near Cambridge Line
241.9
194 32
192 52
1 80
Pleasant Ave.
End of old sewer
Vinal Ave.
90.0
271 61
270 53
1 08
Vinal Ave. .
Pleasant Ave.
Grand View Ave.
206.0
Private lands
Belmont St.
Lowell St.
227.7
1,046 12
673 85
372 27
Lowell
Private lands
Northeasterly
251.7
Private lands
Pearl St.
Runey Pl.
239.2
235 42
232 25
3 17
Runey Pl.
Randolph Pl.
Near Runey St.
Roberts
Lawrence St.
Northwesterly .
167.3
99 03
98 60
43
Sargent Ave.
Sherman Pl.
Mills St.
251.1
289 08
287 50
1 58
Stone Ave. .
Somerville Ave.
Near Columbus Ave.
673.0
757 67
743 65
14 02
Cook
Highland Ave. .
Near Porter St.
110.2
South Wyatt St.
.
.
.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON SEWERS.
288
SEWERS BUILT IN 1891. - Continued.
STREET.
FROM.
To.
Length in Feet.
Total Cost.
Assessment.
Cost to City.
Taylor
Sydney St.
Near Mystic Ave. .
198.6
$201 10
$200 53
$0 57
Waldo
Hudson St.
Near Highland Ave.
201.8
157 20
151 79
5 41
West
Hawthorne St.
Northeasterly
117.5
67 07
66 96
11
Whipple
Highland Ave. .
Howard St. .
191.0
250 86
117 35
133 51
Howard
Whipple St. .
Near Willow Ave.
177.2
Wigglesworth
Pearl St.
Northeasterly
303.0
424 09
256 92
167 17
William .
Elm St.
Near Chandler St.
389.5
1,060 55
649 66
410 89
Windom
Elm St.
Near Summer St. . 232.8
219 41
218 41
1 00
$11,899 28
$10,667 85
$1,231 43
REBUILT.
Spring
Somerville Ave.
Pitman St.
222.8
$370 83
.
$370 83
Total
$12,270 11
.
$1,602 26
.
.
·
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
ANNUAL REPORTS.
REPORT
OF THE
CITY ENGINEER.
CITY OF SOMERVILLE.
IN BOARD OF ALDERMEN, March 9, 1892. Referred to the committee on printing, to be printed in the annual reports. Sent down for concurrence.
GEORGE I. VINCENT, Clerk.
Concurred in.
IN COMMON COUNCIL, March 10, 1892. CHARLES S. ROBERTSON, Clerk.
CITY OF SOMERVILLE.
OFFICE OF CITY ENGINEER, SOMERVILLE, Feb. 22, 1892. To His Honor the Mayor and the City Council : -
In compliance with the City Ordinance, Chapter 9, Section 9, the following report of the city engineer is respectfully submitted : ---
CITY ENGINEER'S DEPARTMENT.
The number of persons permanently employed. in this depart- ment during the year 1891 was six. The expenses of the depart- ment have been as follows : -
Salary of city engineer, including care and maintenance of horse and carriage $2,300 00
Salary of assistants
3,247 46
Instruments and supplies 205 11
Car fares
37 60
$5,790 17
The items of expenditure for salaries of assistants are as fol- lows : -
Giving lines and grades for edgestones and brick side- walks, examining titles of petitioners, and comput- ing assessments $529 54
Giving lines and grades for defining street lines, for grading and macadamizing streets, and].revising acceptance plans, and examining titles of peti- tioners 509 28 Making surveys, giving lines and grades for public sewers, examining titles of petitioners, computing
Amount carried forward .
$1,038 82
292
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Amount brought forward . $1,038 82
assessments and making assessment plans; for . inspection of and the location and recording private drains; giving lines and grades for building catch-basins 1,044 24
Giving lines and grades for laying water pipe, making surveys and plans, and for locating and record- ing locations of house services
96 68
City survey .
Surveys and plans for department of public grounds,
319 45
Making plans for street numbering 128 13
209 79
Indexing note-books and plans, and keeping office records and calculations 117 33
Copying plans at Registry of Deeds and work done for the assessors' department . · Miscellaneous, including work done for department of public buildings 213 47
79 55
$3,247 46
CITY SURVEY.
No systematic work has been done on the city survey. Only such surveys have been made as have been required in making assess- ment plans for sewers built during the year.
Only about one-third of the area of the city has been completely surveyed, and in that portion of the city northwest of Cedar street nothing has been done, except the establishment of street lines on Somerville avenue and Elm street, Summer street, Highland avenue, and Broadway. Sectional maps have been in existence for several years, but have not been completed, and no progress has been made on them for several years. Many sectional surveys and traverses have been made, but have never been connected, and errors prevent the combination of these surveys. The only reason which can be given for the lack of progress is that the office force has not been sufficiently large to undertake any work outside of the routine work on streets and sewers.
This lack of an accurate survey of the city is a great hindrance to the assessors' department. It is often impossible to locate new transfers from the description given in deeds, especially where
293
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
small parcels of land are sold from large tracts of unoccupied land, of which there is no survey or plan in existence. On many streets where the lines are not established large areas of unoccupied lands are now about to be divided into house lots, and the street lines can better be established now, before the land is occupied, than at a later period.
The need of some better methods than now exist has been brought to my attention by the assessors' department several times during the past year, and any progress which may be made will be heartily approved by them.
In no way can this difficulty be better overcome, and the errors in former surveys be eliminated, than by a thorough and systematic revision of existing notes and surveys ; and, preliminary to this, by an accurate triangulation of the city, by which the position of many points on the highest elevations of buildings or land can be accurately determined ; these points to be used in smaller surveys and in revising and correcting existing work. By this method the position of every street intersection and the bounds of every estate can be accurately and definitely described.
I would recommend that a special appropriation be made for the purpose of carrying out these suggestions as outlined above.
SEWER DEPARTMENT.
ITEMS OF EXPENDITURE.
Assessments for thirty-one sewers
$10,667 85
Cost of same to the city
1,231 43
Total cost of sewers built in 1891
$11,899 28
Forty-one catch-basins
$3,010 16 .
Less two paid for by private parties
143 41
2,866 75
Inspection of house drains
338 75
Maintenance
6,913 41
Work done for private parties
301 49
$22,319 68
294
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Nine thousand nine hundred eighty-seven and nine-tenths feet, or one and eighty-nine one-hundredths miles, of public sewers were built during the year 1891.
In addition to the work done as above stated, the sewer in Spring street, from Somerville avenue to Pitman street, built in 1868, was rebuilt at a lower grade, at a cost of $370.83. No assess- ment was made for this work.
The length of public sewers built by the city to January 1, 1892, is forty-seven and thirty-six one-hundredths miles. The total cost of the system to date is about $803,000.
Plans have been made showing the location and profile of all sewers built during the year, and a record has been made on these plans of the location of inlets, the area and frontage of property assessed, and the amount of each assessment as made by the Board of Aldermen. When it has been necessary to take land for the pur- pose of obtaining a right of way for sewer purposes, plans have been made showing the area of land taken and the owners' names.
PRIVATE DRAINS.
Five hundred and fourteen permits for laying private drains and thirty-four for repairs were issued in 1891. Locations of new drains and changes made in old work were properly located and recorded. The cost of inspection of private drains was $338.75.
CATCH-BASINS.
Forty-one (41) new catch-basins were built, at a total cost of $3,010.16, or an average cost of $73.42.
Twenty-seven catch-basins have been repaired, at a total cost of $335.65, and an average cost of $12.43.
Of twenty-four catch-basins, the grades and lines have been changed, at a total cost of $228.10, and an average cost of $9.50.
The cost of cleaning catch-basins was $2,259.18.
The cost of cleaning snow and ice from catch-basin openings was $171.12.
CLEANING AND REPAIRING SEWERS.
A thorough examination of all sewers upon which manholes are located has been made. Deposits were found in the Somerville-
295
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
avenue sewer from the East Cambridge line to Medford street, and the Beacon and Elm street sewer from Kent street to Somerville avenue. Otherwise the public sewers have very little or no deposit in them.
The cost of cleaning sewers was as follows : -
Cleaning, not including flushing $617 04 Flushing 398 07
Cleaning outlet ditches at Winthrop avenue, Austin, North Union, and Waverly streets . 142 87
The cost of cleaning sewers and catch-basins might be con- siderably reduced if more attention was given to cleaning gutters, especially at the foot of steep grades. After heavy rains, the material washed from roadways and sidewalks, and rubbish thrown into the streets by abutters, is found at the foot of steep grades ; and, if not taken up, is carried by the next rain into the catch-basins and the sewers. This material can be removed from the gutters at a small expense to the highway department, and at a small fraction of the cost of removing the same amount of material from the catch- basins and sewers. I would recommend that some means be taken by the highway department to remove this material as fast as it accumulates.
The cost of changing the grade and line of thirty-one manholes was $99.82, an average cost of $3.22.
Five manholes were repaired, at a cost of $27.79. The cost of cleaning manhole dirt catchers was $119.44.
BRIDGE-STREET OUTLET.
The cost of dredging done this year was $2,222.58. Five-ninths of this amount, $1,234.77, was paid by the City of Somerville.
The items of expenditure are as follows :-
3,590 cubic yards material dredged at $0.53 $1,902 70 Advertising, labor, flushing, boots, oil clothing 319 88
$2,222 58
296
ANNUAL REPORTS.
REVISION OF SEWER ORDINANCE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF
PRIVATE SEWERS.
Previous to May 2, 1892, the city had practically no control of the laying out or the construction of private sewers, and the practice had been to allow owners of large tracts of land to build sewers of such sizes and at such depths and grades as these owners were will- ing to pay for. The objections to this practice were fully set forth, and an amendment to the sewer ordinance was recommended, in the report of the city engineer for the year 1890, to which you are respectfully referred for further information.
On May 2, 1892, the following amendment to the sewer ordi- nance became operative :-
Every sewer or drain laid in any land, or street, or way, public or private, opened, or proposed to be opened, for public travel and accommodation, for the purpose of draining more than one estate, shall be deemed to be a common sewer, and no such common sewer shall be laid or connected with any existing common sewer, except by the city. No person shall cut into, interfere with, or obstruct a main drain or common sewer, or shall enter, or attempt to enter, a private or other drain or sewer therein, or into any private drain . connecting with any main drain or common sewer, except in accord- ance with a permit in writing from the city engineer.
The ordinance as amended has given the city entire control of all sewers built since its adoption, and there has been no opposition to its enforcement. Under the new ordinance owners of property desiring a sewer petition the Board of Aldermen, and with the peti- tion file a release of the right to lay, make, and forever maintain a main drain or common sewer, the right to use the street or way in which said sewer is laid, for the purpose of making and maintaining a main drain or common sewer, and agree to make no claim for damages for, or on account of, or in any way growing out of, the lay- ing, making, or maintaining of said drain or sewer. The assessment is then levied in the same manner as for sewers built in public streets. Previous to the acceptance of this amendment three sewers were built in 1891 by private parties under city inspection.
297
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
OTHER AMENDMENTS TO SEWER ORDINANCE.
Further amendments have been made which provide that no work of construction, such as the laying of pipes for gas, water, or other purposes, shall be so executed as to in any way interfere with the course, capacity, or construction of any common sewer ; and when such work exists as to in any way interfere with the construc- tion of sewers, the department, corporation, or person maintaining the same shall at once remove, change, or alter said pipe or other works in such manner as the city engineer shall direct.
Other amendments provide for the use of plugs or clappers to prevent the reflux of drainage matter, storm or tide waters; that no exhaust from steam engines and no blow-off from steam boilers shall be connected with any common sewer or private drain; that no person shall place or deposit in any catch-basin any solid or liquid, or any filthy substance of any kind. Any violation of these ordi- nances is punishable by a fine of not more than twenty dollars.
INSPECTION OF PLUMBING.
By City Ordinance 19, passed during the last year, the inspec- tion of plumbing and house drains is placed under the charge of the inspector of buildings. The necessity for some systematic inspection of plumbing was referred to in the last report of the city engineer ; and later the need of some more effective methods of plumbing inspection than had been in use in previous years was brought to the attention of the committee on the revision of the ordinance relating to building construction. This committee reported an ordinance under which a plumber is required to register his name and place of business, and file a notice of work to be performed in the office of the inspector of buildings.
Other sections of the ordinance provide for proper connection with the sewer, inspection, testing, material of drain pipes, traps, ventilators, rain-water leaders, pipes, joints and connections, waste and air pipes, traps, etc., water-closets, privy vaults; and that no steam exhaust shall be connected with any public sewer.
THE PROPOSED SEWER IN THE BOSTON AND LOWELL RAILROAD LOCATION.
The need of a sewer in the Boston and Lowell Railroad location
298
ANNUAL REPORTS.
is more urgent than ever. The owners of large tracts of land in the west part of the city are waiting for sewers to be constructed to drain their land; for until some system of sewage disposal is pro- vided, their land cannot be placed upon the market. In other locations the proposed sewer will soon be needed to provide for the disposal of storm water, which has even now become troublesome. In the report of the city engineer for the years 1889 and 1890 this matter has been thoroughly discussed, and your attention is respect- fully directed to these reports.
ELM-STREET SEWER.
In my last annual report it was recommended that the Elm- street sewer be connected with the Beacon and Elm streets sewer at Mossland street, the connection to be used only as a storm over- flow. This work was not done last year, as was recommended.
EXTENSION OF THE WILLOW-AVENUE SEWER TO ELM STREET.
The attention of the City Council is directed to the necessity for the extension of this sewer, as stated in the annual report of the city engineer for the year 1890.
EXTENSION OF THE WINTHROP-AVENUE SEWER.
In the reports of the city engineer for the years 1888, 1889 and 1890, it was recommended that the Winthrop-avenue sewer be extended from Mystic avenue to Middlesex avenue.
That this work should be done becomes more apparent every year. The purchase of a large area by the Boston and Maine Rail- road in this vicinity will soon make such changes in the use of the land as will require that this work be done. If the work recom- mended is delayed until after these changes are made, the cost of the work will be much larger than if done at once.
EXTENSION OF SEWERAGE SYSTEM IN WEST SOMERVILLE.
That portion of West Somerville bounded by Curtis street, the Medford line, College avenue, Broadway, Cedar street, Frederick, Willow, and Kidder avenues, Summit and Chandler streets, Broad-
299
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
way, Simpson avenue, and Holland street, comprising an area of about two hundred and three acres, has no system of sewers. A large portion of this area has never been occupied, and until within a few years there has been no demand for land for building purposes. Within three years a considerable amount of building has been done, and there is now a need of an extensive system of sewers to meet the demand for building lots.
To provide for the area above mentioned three systems must be built. One by way of Elm street, Broadway, and Simpson avenue to the sewer in Holland street; a second, by way of Willow and Frederick avenues and Cedar street to a proposed sewer in the Boston and Lowell Railroad ; the third, by way of Broadway to the Boston and Lowell Railroad.
The first system comprises an area of about one hundred and twenty-nine acres; of this area only about forty-five acres need be provided for at once; the eighty-four acres remaining is comprised within the Tufts College grounds.
In this area test pits and borings, which have been made to determine the nature and depth of the underlying rock, show that over about twenty-three acres the rock rises nearly to the surface, and the cost of sewers in this area will exceed the amount which can be raised by assessment, unless a higher rate of assessment is made than has been the custom. The cost of this system can be more equitably assessed if the entire system within this area be con- structed under one order. I recommend that this system of forty-five acres be built the present season and assessed as recommended.
The second comprises an area of about forty-nine acres, and includes a part of the Powder House farm and the Ayer estate.
In the second area no borings have been made, but it is proba- ble that the amount of rock excavation would be small. This sewer would drain the Powder House farm and the Ayer estate alone, and would eventually connect with the sewer in the Boston and Lowell Railroad location. A temporary outlet into the sewer in Cedar street could be provided until the Lowell Railroad sewer be built.
I have been informed that the owners of estates benefited are desirous that this sewer should be built, and I recommend that this work be done the coming season.
The third comprises about twenty-five acres, and includes the remainder of the estates last above mentioned.
300
ANNUAL REPORTS.
The third system cannot be constructed until the proposed sewer in the Boston and Lowell Railroad is constructed.
NORTH METROPOLITAN SEWERAGE SYSTEM.
Surveys for the final location and construction of the North Metropolitan sewer were begun in 1889, and in May, 1890, con- struction was begun.
The work of construction has been continued in various loca- tions from Deer Island to the southerly end of Section 24, which is about 500 feet northerly from the pile structure on Malden bridge.
The total length of all sections completed and under contract to the point last above mentioned is 43,500 lineal feet, or eight and twenty-four one-hundredths miles. The total length completed to January 1, 1892, was 28,703 lineal feet, or five and forty-four one- hundredths miles. The sections yet remaining uncompleted between Deer Island and Malden bridge comprise the various river cross- ings and the outfall at Deer Island.
APPORTIONMENT OF COST.
The proportions in which the several cities and towns com- prised within the north and south Metropolitan sewerage districts shall pay money to meet the interest and sinking fund requirements, and the annual charge for maintenance and operation for five years ending April 5, 1895, has been apportioned by a commission appointed by the Supreme Court, under Section 13, Chapter 439, of the Acts of the year 1889.
The commissioners- Ebenezer R. Hoar, Arthur C. Endicott, John E. Sanford -made a report November 7, 1891. By this report it appears that Somerville will be required to pay, to meet the interest and sinking fund requirements, 10.91 per cent .; and the maintenance and operation account, 15.14 per cent.
No charge for maintenance will be made until 1893.
The estimated cost of the North Metropolitan system is $4,159,453.00. The estimated annual cost of maintenance and operation when this system is completed is $89,000.00.
The basis of apportionment, on which the percentages for interest and sinking fund requirements were estimated, is given by the commissioners as follows: "To the total values of real
301
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
and personal estate, as assessed by the local boards, have been added the values, as furnished us by the tax commissioners, of all bank and corporation stocks, and ships and vessels, the taxes on which are paid or accrue under state laws to the several cities and towns." For the "payments on account of the cost of maintenance and operation" the basis of apportionment was the "respective populations" of the several cities and towns in the district. "The valuation of May, 1890, and the national census of that year have been used for the purposes aforesaid."
A table showing the location, size, cost per foot, assessment, and cost to the city of sewers built in 1891 may be found in Appendix A.
HIGHWAYS.
The work done by the highway department has been under the charge of the superintendent, Mr. Thomas H. Eames, and has been carried on in a thorough, efficient, and economical manner.
The appropriation for the highways for 1890 was . Add for collections for work done in former. years, income from city land and dwellings, materials on hand, tools and property, profit on tools and property and materials, and unpaid bills for materials
$45,000 00
2,526 65 .
Excess of expenditure over resources
168 95
$47,695 60
The items of expenditure are as follows :-
Construction of streets
$6,915 39
Repairing streets
15,755 88
Repairing and constructing streets in connection with laying horse railroad tracks
1,850 09
Washington street retaining wall, Joy street to the Bos- ton and Lowell R. R. bridge
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.