USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1892 > Part 20
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183 59
Grades and lines for department of public grounds
53 56
Surveys, grades, lines, and estimates, Nathan Tufts Park 388 10 Making plans for numbering streets and affixing num- bers to houses 189 21
Indexing note-books and plans and keeping office records 26 60
Copying plans, Middlesex Registry of Deeds, and work done for the assessors' department
38 35
New city map
101 26
Surveys, grades, and lines connected with changes in street railway track locations 34 87
Surveys, grades, and lines for laying out and construc- tion of Broadway Parkway 93 52.
Surveys, plans, grades, lines, and estimates for paving Somerville avenue, from Medford street to Park street, Union square, and Webster avenue, from Union square to the Fitchburg railroad .
Miscellaneous, including five sets of maps made for fire department, showing location of hydrants by wards, plans and sketches for police and law depart- ments, to be used in accident and criminal cases, grades and lines for curbstone on street lines at certain schoolhouses
623 86
300 59
$4,392 88
363
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
CITY SURVEY.
No progress has been made on the city survey. Until this survey is completed, it will be impossible to make accurate valuation plans for the assessors' department, and sectional plans of the city. These plans, when completed, will be used in adjusting street and estate lines ; in making sewer and sidewalk plans and assessments ; for recording the location of street intersections and street lines ; for indicating the position of sewers, gas and water mains, manholes, catch-basins, monuments, trees, edgestones, etc .; in preparing drainage plans for those portions of the city in which sewers have not been constructed ; and in opening and locating new streets.
As a basis on which such a survey may be made, and to correct and adjust surveys and traverses already made, it is necessary that the relative positions of many points should be determined. From these points the exact distance to any other point, as well as the length of the lines joining these points, could be accurately deter- mined. In this way errors which are now apparent in local surveys would be eliminated, and an exact and accurate plan of the whole or any part of the city, of any street, alley, or house lot could be made with the least amount of work and with absolute accuracy.
The method by which the relative position of the several points or stations is determined is called triangulation.
The value of accurate plots of blocks for the assessors' use must be comprehended and admitted by every one who has had any experience with municipal affairs. The value of such plans when made and their usefulness ought to be comprehended when it is stated that assessed areas have been computed from plans made thirty to forty years ago, when the area included within the city lines was almost like pasture land, and the property lines defined by these plans have been in many cases long since destroyed. It is often impossible to locate new transfers from the description given in deeds, especially where 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. Areas have been carried by deed from one person to another, and errors in copying or possi-
364
ANNUAL REPORTS.
ble intentional changes have produced discrepancies which may never appear until some such survey is made.
This is an experience which has come to a great many cities and towns in this vicinity, and it has invariably been stated, whenever I have inquired, that the increased valuation obtained from the errors discovered in areas of land has more than paid for the cost of the surveys.
That the importance of undertaking this work immediately may be impressed on the minds of the City Council, I will copy from the report of the year 1891 the following :-
"Only about one-third of the area of the city has been com- pletely 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."
As will be seen in the items of expenditure on page 362, only a small amount ($183.59) has been expended for work which pertained to the city survey.
Surveys required to complete sewer assessments and record plans, to locate houses for street numbers, and for records of house sewers and water service location, comprise all the work done which could properly pertain to the city survey.
The probability that such a survey would inevitably be made at an early date has been remembered, and what has been done dur- ing the year 1892 will be of service when it is completed.
When the work on the survey outlined above is commenced, it should be done under a special order of the City Council, and by an engineering party outside of the force regularly employed. Precise and accurate work can only be done by a party that will give its entire time to the work.
From a study of the reports on file in the office, I have ascer-
365
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
tained that, in 1883, the sum of three hundred dollars was appropri- ated to defray the cost of a special city survey. I have found no record of any appropriation since that date, and it is indeed a small sum for nine years' work. I would, therefore, recommend that a special appropriation of $500 be made to commence this work.
STREET MONUMENTS.
That monuments should be placed at street intersections, and at such other points as may be necessary to properly mark deflections or changes in the alignment of the street lines, is of the greatest importance, and is, perhaps, of as much value to a city or town as any work which a city engineer may be called upon to perform. On the exactness of the location of street lines rests the correct location of property lines and the imaginary lines which separate a man's property from that of his neighbors.
Plans on which the exact location of street lines are shown, and note-books showing buildings, fences, offsets, etc., be they ever so carefully and neatly drawn, are not of the least importance if there are not some objects on the ground to which such measurements can be referred. It is well known that plans and note-books are very seldom deposited in fire-proof vaults, and if plans or note-books are destroyed, how will it be possible to locate street lines unless meas- urements are placed to mark street intersections and angles? Then, too, a careless assistant may mislay a note-book, and thus destroy, perhaps, evidences of the location of the lines of twenty or thirty streets. The practice, now so common, of removing street fences and fences on division lines must make the re-location of street and property lines all the more difficult, unless the street intersections are marked by some method indestructible by fire, frost, water, or the unaccountable mischief of persons, who often remove evidences of lines, as stakes, posts, rods, trees, walls, etc.
From an investigation of reports and records in this office, I find that about 117 monuments now exist which were set in 1860, 100 were set in 1877, and thirty-five in 1884. That is, only 252 monu- ments have been set and are now in use in Somerville in thirty-three years, and that with about fifty miles of public streets.
Lest it might seem that the present engineer has been negligent, I would say that requests have been made repeatedly to the commit-
366
ANNUAL REPORTS.
tee on highways for an appropriation for this purpose, but no appro- priation has yet been made. I am of the opinion that it would be expedient to pass an ordinance requiring the city engineer to place annually as many monuments as may be necessary to properly define street lines, and that the committee on finance include annually in its appropriation bill a sum sufficient to pay the cost of this work.
The practice of removing street and division fences, already alluded to under "city survey," will tend to cause serious complica- tions in titles to real estate, unless some immovable method of locat- ing street lines shall be adopted, and all fences be referred to these immovable landmarks.
I would, therefore, recommend that the sum of $500 be appro- priated for placing stone monuments at such locations as the city engineer may deem necessary.
OFFICE ACCOMMODATION.
It has long been evident that the facilities for properly arrang- ing plans, note-books, etc., in the department are entirely inadequate to its needs.
The office is small and poorly arranged for the number of men employed, and it is even necessary to locate some of the office help in another part of the City Hall, beyond the control of the engineer. The present arrangement for filing plans is so small, and the books and plans are so crowded, that it is only with extreme care that plans can be used without injury. The safe for plans and note-books is small, and its construction is such that if the building were destroyed by fire, the contents, if not entirely destroyed, would be of very little value. The loss of note-books and plans would be a severe one, and it would be impossible to replace them at any cost. The records of location and depths of sewer and water mains, the plans of highway locations, the surveys of streets, lands, and buildings, levels and grades for highways, and land plans of which no other copies can now be obtained, all would be destroyed. The cost of constructing a new vault would seem to be exceedingly small when compared with the value of the records and plans now contained in the present vault. The cost of a new vault, when compared with the cost of duplicating these valuable records, ought not to be considered for a moment.
367
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
I would, therefore, recommend that this question receive your early consideration, and that immediate steps be taken to provide safe and suitable accommodations for the department and its records.
CITY MAP.
The only existing map of the city now in this office was made in 1883. So many changes in street lines have been made, and new streets have been laid out, that this map is of very little value.
In 1891 some work preliminary to making a new map was under- taken, and, at that time, traverses were compiled and a skeleton traverse made through the following streets: Broadway, Holland and Elm streets, Union square, Washington and Mount Vernon streets. Another traverse by way of Washington street, Union square, Somer- ville avenue, Beacon, Cambridge, and Medford streets, Fitchburg and Boston & Lowell railroad locations is now being computed. A third traverse by way of Broadway, City line, Mystic avenue, and Union street will be made. These three traverses will be referred to that part of the northerly line of Highland avenue between Cedar street and Davis square, and the co-ordinates of every point of these traverses will be computed and recorded. From these computations a map of the city can be drawn which will be accurate within the limits of a scale of z400. The portion of the map included within the lines of the traverse first above mentioned has been plotted, and comprises the larger part of the city.
PAVING UNION SQUARE AND PORTIONS OF SOMERVILLE AND WEBSTER AVENUES.
April 13, 1892, the committee on highways was authorized to solicit proposals for paving these streets, and an appropriation of $100,000 was made for doing the work. July 14, 1892, a contract was signed with the Rockport Granite Company for furnishing granite paving blocks. July 29th a contract was signed with Horatio Gore & Co. for paving Section 1. July 30th a contract was signed with William H. Gore & Co. for paving Section 2.
The area between the edgestones and outside rails of the street railway tracks and the area between the tracks was paved by the city. The area between the rails of both tracks was
368
ANNUAL REPORTS.
paved by the street railway company; each party in interest furnished and laid the paving in the areas, as above described.
The blocks used in the work done by the city were the best quality of Rockport granite, and were cut to the following dimen- sions : width, 312 to 412 inches ; length, 8 to 12 inches, and to average not less than 10 inches; depth, 7 to 8 inches. Under the terms of the contract the blocks were delivered subject to inspection on the wharf. The contract price was $72 per thousand delivered on the wharf. Seven hundred and seventy-nine thousand three hundred and eighty-two blocks were used.
The average cut due to the change in grade from the macadam to the paved surface was five inches, and the average depth of exca- vation for the gravel foundation was eleven inches, making a total average excavation of sixteen inches.
The pavement was laid on a gravel foundation four inches in thickness, with sufficient bedding sand to bring the granite blocks to the proper grade. The joints were filled with fine gravel, rammed, and the paving was covered with screened gravel one inch in thick- ness. Edgestones were reset and pointed on joints and face, and the brick sidewalks repaved where required.
Cross-walks were laid with granite flagging twenty-four inches wide, not less than three feet in length, and not less than seven inches in thickness; rough pointed on top, and jointed on ends and sides. The flagging was delivered on the work by the city at a cost to the city of $0.36 per square foot.
The granite blocks were hauled from the wharf by the contractor for paving and regulating, and at his expense. By the terms of the contract the contractor was required to maintain the pavement for the period of six months from the date of the final completion of his contract, not including the months of December, January, February, and March.
The items of cost of work done in paving Sections 1 and 2 com- bined are as follows : -
779,382 granite blocks, including wharfage, culling, piling, printing contracts and specifications, tools, lumber, and sundries $58,477 41
Amount carried forward
$58,477 41
369
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
Amount brought forward .
$58,477 41
11,012.9 lin. ft. edgestone reset
2,826 54
350.25 lin. ft. edgestones furnished and delivered
$0 45
185 78
7,454.34 sq. ft. granite flagging delivered,
$0 36
2,683 56
3,451.00 sq. ft. North River flagging delivered
$0 5712
992 16
52,683 bricks delivered
698 92
28,838.63 sq. yds. granite block paving
29,399 99
5,072.03 sq. yds. sidewalk relaid .
2,332 08
1,132.40 sq. yds. crossings laid
1,261 71
430 00
Eighty-six days inspecting of materials and work Labor at dump, Lowell street, city lot, piling cobble stones from old gutters and spreading surplus material from excavation 77 36
Labor and materials, changing grade of sidewalk, bulk- heads, and reservoir covers, Union square
10 44
Changing location of two electric light poles
9 80
Extra work and materials
101 41
Printing contracts and specifications, paving and regulating 74 30
Advertising proposals, paving, and regulating
68 60
Car fares
8 97
$99,639 03
Less cost of edgestone and labor for sidewalk, Webster avenue, east side, Everett street to the railroad ( charged to sidewalk account ) $202 19 Labor lowering edgestone for driveway 66
202 85
Net cost of the work done "The cost of changing grades of reser- voir, catch-basins, and manholes was
$99,436 18
$449 20
Amounts carried forward . $449 20
$99,436 18
370
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Amounts brought forward $449 20 $99,436 18 The cost of building eight new catch-
basins . 536 74
985 94 (This work was charged to the sewer depart- ment, although it was occasioned directly by the paving of Somerville and Webster avenues.) Total cost of paving
$100,422 12
Six new catch-basins were built on Somerville avenue, and two on Webster avenue. These new basins were required because the edgestones were set practically level, and the proper fall in the gutter could only be obtained by using summits in the gutters to dis- charge the surface water into the basins. Forty-one catch-basins and thirteen manholes were adjusted to the new lines and grades. The cost of these new basins and changes was $945.52, and was charged to the appropriation for sewers.
The superfluous material excavated from the roadway was removed from the street by contractors; such portion of this material as was required by the city was removed by the contractor at his- expense and delivered at certain points determined by the city engi- neer. This material was used in grading certain streets and filling adjacent low lands, in most cases to abate nuisances, and was of great value to the city. It is certain that in many of the streets graded no work of this kind could have ever been done, had not the material for filling been obtained in this way.
Seven thousand four hundred and eighty cubic yards of material were excavated from the roadway ; 14,440 linear feet of street were- filled ; 46,000 square yards of surface were covered.
In Appendix F will be found a canvass of bids for paving and regulating Union square, Somerville and Webster avenues.
WORK DONE AT MIDDLESEX REGISTRY OF DEEDS, EAST CAMBRIDGE.
Tracings have been made of all plans of real estate filed at the registry of deeds during the past year, and a copy of the plan index has been made, giving the name of the street, owner's and surveyor's, names, date and record number of every plan on record.
371
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
SEWER DEPARTMENT.
ITEMS OF EXPENDITURES.
Assessments for twenty-one sewers $7,446 35
Amount assumed by the city 1,309 03
Total cost of construction
$8,755 38
Sewers partially completed December 31, and not assessed in 1892 : -
Granite street . .
73 26
Sewers in West Somerville, that portion of the cost of these sewers assumed by the city to be paid from money borrowed on funded debt account : --
Willow avenue, from Elm
street to Hawthorne
street, assessment . $1,722 20
Assumed by the city . 1,730 74
$3,452 94
Sewers uncompleted December 31 and not assessed, to be paid from funded account : -
Sewer in Paulina street
and Broadway . $3,836 46
Sewer in Broadway, Wal- ·lace street, easterly 680 45
4,516 91
'Total cost of West Somerville sewers to December 31 7,969 85
Cost of rebuilding sewer in Glen street and private lands (see Appendix A), $556 69
Amounts carried forward . .
$556 69
$16,798 49
372
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Amounts brought forward $556 69 $16,798 49
Building manhole, Glen street and pri- vate lands sewer . 34 66
Cost of rebuilding Harvard-street sewer (see Appendix A )
404 25
Total cost of sewers rebuilt
995 60
Cost of twenty-six catch-basins
$1,091 58
Cost of rebuilding two catch-basins
154 88
Total cost of catch-basins built and rebuilt Cost of rebuilding manhole in Union square on Bow-
1,846 46
street sewer, on account of change in location of horse railway tracks 43 95
Cost of laying outlet of drinking fountain at Magoun square .
31 73
Inspection, private drains
253 78
Maintenance (see report of committee on sewers)
6,468 02
Net decrease in value of materials, tools, and property
200 88
Sundry expenses
73 99
Net expenditures for 1892
$26,712 90
Labor and materials furnished other city departments
for which credit has been received 198 68.
Total cost of work done in 1892
$26,911 58
Seven thousand nine hundred and sixty feet, or one and five- tenths miles, of public sewers were built during the year 1892.
The sewers in Glen street and in private lands, from Glen street to near Cutter street, and in Harvard street, from Beach street to near Elm place, were rebuilt at a cost of $995.60.
WILLOW-AVENUE SEWERS.
In the year 1885 a (brick) sewer, twenty-four inches by seventeen inches, was laid in Highland avenue, from Cherry street to Willow avenue, and in Willow avenue a sewer, thirty inches by twenty inches
₹
373
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
diameter, was laid from Highland avenue to Hawthorne street. At Hawthorne street it discharged by a temporary connection, twelve inches in diameter, into the twelve-inch sewer in Hawthorne street. In the year 1879 a brick sewer, thirty inches in diameter, was laid in Highland avenue east of Cedar street, and in 1889 it was extended to near Central street; this sewer discharged at that time by a twelve-inch connection into the sewer in Cedar street, southerly.
Although but little storm water was taken into this sewer, yet a considerable deposit was made in the Cedar-street sewer, so much so that a twelve-inch pipe was laid, connecting the two sections of the brick sewer in Highland avenue from Cedar street easterly and Cherry street westerly, and through this twelve-inch connection the storm water was discharged by way of Willow avenue and the twelve- inch connection at Hawthorne street. This new line of disposal only removed the trouble formerly existing at Cedar street to Hawthorne street.
To finally dispose of this question of storm water discharge, the Willow-avenue sewer was extended from Hawthorne street to Elm street. This sewer further provides for an outlet for sewers to be laid in Summer street, Charnwood and Gordonia roads, and in streets to be laid through a portion of the Ayer and Tufts estates. The twelve-inch pipe sewer in Highland avenue, between Cedar street and Cherry street, is not to be considered as being perma- nently a part of the main sewers above referred to, and must only be used as an outlet for Highland avenue from Cedar street easterly until such time as a main sewer may be constructed in the Lowell railroad location, when the Highland-avenue sewer must be deflected northerly through Cedar street to the railroad.
REBUILDING SEWER IN GLEN STREET AND PRIVATE LANDS.
This sewer is twenty-four inches in diameter, and was built of brick, under a contract with I. C. Cushing, in 1871. For several years it has been in an unsatisfactory condition, and has been repaired several times. During the early summer many complaints were made by people in the vicinity that the sewage came through the sewer and flooded adjacent lands.
The complaints became so frequent that examinations were made, from which it appeared that the sewer had settled considerably, that
374
ANNUAL REPORTS.
portions of the arch had fallen in, and for a considerable distance the depth of covering on the arch was less than twelve inches. Rod soundings were taken to determine the character of the material underlying the sewer and the cause of the settlement. From these soundings it appeared that the sewer was laid on mud varying in thickness from eight to twenty feet, and, so far as ascertained by pre- liminary work, no effort had been made to support the sewer laterally. Work of rebuilding was begun in October, and after the old sewer had been removed, it was found that a cradle had been laid under the invert, but that no support had been given to the haunches, and the trench had been back-filled with mud. Levels taken on the invert indicated that it had settled, or possibly had been laid from two inches to twenty-four inches below the probable grade line. It was thought best not to disturb the invert and cradle, but to lay a course of two-inch planking outside the cradle of sufficient width on which to build the brick walls, or backing, to provide lateral support for the invert. On this platform these side walls were carried up with the invert to a height sufficient to support the arch. A new water line was established, and the new work was laid solid on the old invert up to the new water line. The arch was then turned, as is usually done. At the place where the settlement was twenty-four inches the deposit in the sewer had accumulated within two inches of the top of the sewer, and it is probable that the sewer was so reduced in size that the pressure from the water, when the sewer was running full in time of rain, and the lack of sufficient covering on the arch to protect it from frost, were assisting causes in the destruction of the sewer. A manhole was built at the intersection of the private lands sewer with the sewer in Glen street.
This sewer has been examined during the winter, and appears to be in a satisfactory condition. The cost of rebuilding was assumed by the city.
REBUILDING SEWER IN HARVARD STREET.
The sewer in Harvard street, from Beach street to Elm place, was rebuilt at a lower grade to provide sewerage for the estates on Elm place. The grade was lowered about six and one-half feet at Elm place, and at this point a drop manhole was built to connect the new and old grades. The cost of rebuilding was assumed by the city.
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