USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1892 > Part 21
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375
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
The length of public sewers built by the city to January 1, 1893, is forty-eight and eighty-six one-hundredths (48.86) miles.
The total cost of the system to date, not including sewers uncom- pleted December 31, 1892, has been $815,208.
Plans have been made showing the location and profile of sewers built during the year, the location of inlets and manholes, the owners' names, the areas and frontages assessed, and the amount of assess- ment on each estate as levied by the Board of Aldermen.
Taking of land plans for sewers in White-street place and Jose- phine avenue, from Morrison avenue to Frederick avenue, have been made and filed.
Thirty-three preliminary profiles for sewers have also been made during the year.
PRIVATE DRAINS.
Five hundred and seventy-two permits for laying house drains and thirty-six for repairs were issued in 1892. All new drains have been located with reference to the location of the house and sewer and will be properly entered in the note-books and recorded on the assessment plans. The cost of inspection has been $253.78.
The inspection of house drains, so far as this work has been attended to during the past year, has been accomplished by one man who has also been required to act as inspector on sewer construction ; and although this work has been as faithfully attended to as was possible within the time which the inspector was able to give to it, yet the results were not satisfactory. Especially was this true in the method of back-filling trenches, and of the condition in which the surface of the street was left after the trench was filled. Further, the inspector of house-drains will hereafter give his whole time to this work, and the drain-layers must be required to lay the entire drain from sewer to house before back-filling the trench, and keep the same open until the whole line of pipe has been inspected.
CATCH-BASINS.
Twenty-six catch-basins were built, at a total cost of $1,091.58. Two have been rebuilt, at a cost of $154.88.
The number of catch-basins in use December 31, 1892, was 711.
376
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Three catch-basins have been repaired, at a cost of $25.41; an average cost of $8.47 per catch-basin.
The cost of changing the grade and line of sixty-five catch-basins was $554.56, an average cost of $8.53 per catch-basin.
Eleven hundred and forty-nine catch-basins were cleaned, and 2,207 loads, or 2,585 cubic yards, of material were removed from the basins and carried to a dump, at a total cost of $1,831.86; an aver- age cost per basin of $1.59; per load, of $0.82; per cubic yard, of $0.71.
The cost of removing ice, snow, gravel, and other materials from catch-basin openings has been $144.19.
CLEANING AND REPAIRING SEWERS AND MANHOLES.
Twenty-three miles of pipe sewers have been flushed, at a cost of $451.78, and an average cost per mile of $15.29, or $3.72 per thou- sand feet. The method of flushing is as follows: A ball to which is attached a rope of sufficient length to reach between manholes is inserted in the sewer at a manhole. After closing the sewer at the manhole, water from a hydrant is allowed to accumulate in the man- hole ; the sewer is then opened, and the water rushing under the ball forces the deposit in the sewer to the next manhole, where the deposit is removed, and the flushing continued.
Two. and nine-tenths (2.9) miles of brick sewers have been cleaned, at a cost of $627.72; an average cost of $216.45 per mile, or $41.16 per thousand feet. The methods of cleaning are drawing an iron bucket between manholes by horse-power on sewers less than three feet in diameter, employing two men, horse and driver; on larger sewers, by shovelling the deposit into boats floated or drawn through the sewer between manholes, and hoisting the materials in buckets by hand derrick to the surface. The number of men em- ployed has been five, with one single cart and driver.
The cost of cleaning outfall ditches at Winthrop avenue, Austin, North Union, and Waverly streets was $180.95.
The cost of cleaning sewers and catch-basins might be consider- ably reduced if more attention were paid to removing deposits in gutters, at the foot of steep grades, and near catch-basins. As this work properly belongs to the highway department, it would be proper for that department to provide for it. It is more economical to
377
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
remove this material from the gutters than from the catch-basins and sewers. The cost of repairing streets will be much less if the gutters are cleaned and the water confined to the gutters.
The cost of changing the grade and line of forty-one manholes. was $324.31; an average cost of $7.91 per manhole.
The cost of repairing two manholes was $39.82.
The cost of cleaning manhole dirt-catchers was $144.42.
BRIDGE-STREET OUTLET.
The cost of dredging done was $2,191.45. The items of cost are as follows :-
3,523 cubic yards material dredged
at $0.55 $1,937 65
Labor, advertising, teaming, water, oil clothing 253 80
$2,191 45
Of this amount, five-ninths, or $1,217.47, was paid by the city of Somerville, the balance by the city of Cambridge.
INTERCEPTING SEWER IN THE LOCATION OF THE BOSTON AND LOWELL RAILROAD.
The attention of the City Council has been called to the neces- sity for the construction of this sewer in the several annual reports. of the city engineer since 1888.
Every year the necessity for making some provision for the dis- tricts which might be drained into a sewer constructed in the Lowell railroad locations becomes more apparent. Perhaps all that may be written in addition to what has been previously printed in the reports. of previous years is that the damage done by the overflow of storm water from the existing sewers is more extended, and the demands for sewers in new locations become more urgent each year. The sewerage of the Powder House farm and the Ayer estate ; the sewers needed in Broadway, from Magoun square to Liberty avenue, in Cedar street, from Broadway to the Boston & Lowell railroad, which cannot be constructed because there is no outlet for them ; the dis-
378
ANNUAL REPORTS.
posal of storm water from the southerly slope of Winter Hill, between Cedar street and School street, as well as the northerly slope of Spring Hill, from Cedar street to Central street, including the dis- trict known as "Polly Swamp," and the flooding of cellars in the vicinity of School and Medford streets, Medford and Marshall streets, and in East Somerville east of Cross street, are problems which demand immediate investigation, and which depend for their solution on the construction of an intercepting sewer on the Lowell railroad location.
So long as the solution of the problem for the disposal of storm water is postponed, just so much more will the damage to property and inconvenience to the public be increased. Particularly is this true in the district bounded by Broadway, Hinckley, Lowell, Vernon, Central, and Medford streets.
The sewers already constructed were designed to dispose of house drainage only. No provision for storm-water sewers was made at the time these sewers were constructed. The storm water must find its own channels by way of street gutters to vacant land, not only to the damage of street surfaces, but also to the injury of pri- vate lands and dwelling-houses.
The present methods must continue until storm-water sewers are constructed in these streets, and connected with the proposed inter- cepting sewer.
The flooding of cellars at the intersection of School and Medford streets, and at Medford and Marshall streets, is caused by the back water from the Medford-street sewer. This sewer drains the area bounded by Marshall street, Broadway, Adams and Medford streets, and is but twenty-eight inches in diameter; while to properly dispose of the storm water from this area a sewer double the capacity should be built, a fact which is of itself a sufficient cause for the damage done, and can only be remedied by the disposal of the excess of storm water by some other means.
The flooding of cellars in East Somerville is likewise due to back water from sewers of insufficient capacity.
The sewer in Cross street intercepts the sewage from the area bounded by Mount Vernon, Broadway, Adams, Medford, and Central streets, Highland avenue, Medford, Cross, and Pearl streets, an area of about 300 acres, except a small area drained by the sewer in Mar- shall street. As this sewer is but thirty-six inches in diameter, it is
379
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
probably discharged under a head of three or four feet, which is sufficient to raise the sewage above the bottom of the cellars. It is readily seen that the sewage, when at an elevation in the sewer above the cellar floor, will back up through the house drains into the cellars.
To remedy this trouble it will be necessary to consider what the probable location of the proposed main sewer above referred to will be and howit can be located to relieve the sewers in East Somerville. It does not appear that this proposed sewer is needed in the railroad location east of Walnut street; and at this point it is only necessary to consider the probable location of an outlet. Further, as it is. preferable that the outlet should be within the city limits, it is proba- ble an outlet would be located on the Mystic river at, or near, the present outlet of the culvert under Middlesex avenue, where the Winthrop-avenue sewer outfall ditch now discharges.
In locating this sewer a route might be selected by way of Gil- man, Aldrich, Flint, and Rush streets, Broadway, and New Cross street to Mystic and Middlesex avenues. The Pearl and Cross streets sewers could be connected at Rush and Pearl streets, and the Glen- street and private lands sewer could be intercepted at Rush and Brooks streets.
At these connections storm overflows could be constructed, which would relieve the old sewers. This plan would probably remove the cause of all existing troubles in the locations above referred to.
I would recommend that the committee on sewers be given full powers to investigate and report to the City Council plans and esti- mate of cost of the construction of this intercepting sewer.
EXTENSION OF THE WINTHROP-AVENUE SEWER.
The necessity for the extension of this sewer to the Mystic river has been alluded to in the annual reports of the city engineer since the year 1888. When it is known that this sewer, which is five feet in diameter, intercepts the sewage from an area of about ninety acres, containing a population of about twenty thousand; and, further, that it discharges through an open ditch eight hundred feet long into tide water; that for at least eight hours out of twenty-four there is absolutely no discharge from this sewer, and for four hours more
380
ANNUAL REPORTS.
there is very little discharge, because the tide gates at the end of the outfall ditch are closed by the high tide, -it must be evident that there can be no other result than that a very offensive odor will be given off by the sewage while it is retained in the ditch by the tide and by the solid matter which is deposited on the bottom and sides of the ditch, and is exposed to the sun during the hours of low water in the ditch. Your attention is particularly called to the report for the year 1888, in which additional reasons for the extension of this sewer are given. The recommendations of the previous four years are continued and repeated, and your attention is hereby called to the necessity of making some provision for carrying out these recommendations.
ELM-STREET SEWER.
In the report of the city engineer for the year 1891 it was recommended that a storm overflow be constructed at Cedar street from the Elm-street high level sewer into the Beacon and Elm streets sewer. This work was not done last year, because the appropriation for sewers was not large enough to provide for it. It is hoped that some means will be provided this year.
EXTENSION OF SEWERAGE SYSTEM IN WEST SOMERVILLE, BROADWAY AND ELM-STREET DISTRICT.
September 9th a contract was signed with Timothy F. Crimmings and Dennis C. Collins for the construction of a sewer in Paulina street, and in Broadway, from Paulina street easterly to Wallace street. September 23d a contract was signed with Willard B. Byrne for the extension of this sewer from Wallace street easterly to Elm street.
The Paulina-street sewer is built of brick, egg-shaped, eight inches thick, thirty inches by forty-five inches, and is 838.75 feet in length. The sewer in Broadway between Paulina and Wallace streets is built of brick, eight inches thick, egg-shaped, twenty-six inches by thirty-nine inches, and is 854.8 feet in length.
These two sewers were completed December 23d, at a total cost of $9,274.93, including seven manholes and the cost of exca- vating 335.23 cubic yards of rock.
381
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
Work on the extension of this sewer from Wallace street to Elm street was closed for the season about the middle of December, and will be resumed early in the spring.
This sewer was built of brick, four inches thick, egg-shaped, is twenty-two inches by thirty-three inches. About 133.06 linear feet of this sewer has been completed. It is expected the entire system will be completed during the coming year, at a total estimated cost, includ- ing the cost of the sewer in Willow avenue, of about $24,000, and a cost to the city, exclusive of assessments, of about $17,000.
NORTH METROPOLITAN SEWERAGE SYSTEM.
The work of construction has been continued during the year. On February 24th, 1893, of the entire line of sewer from the outer end of the outfall at Deer Island to the Somerville and Cambridge city line by way of the Asylum grounds, Poplar and Medford streets, all but 4,800 feet was either under contract or being done by the day.
Of the Alewife brook branch, all but 5,800 feet was either under contract or being done by the day.
EXTENSION OF THE SEWERAGE SYSTEM IN WEST SOMERVILLE, CLAREN- DON HILL DISTRICT.
In that portion of West Somerville bounded by the Arlington branch railroad, North avenue, Alewife brook, Broadway, and Holland street no sewers have been constructed, except in a limited area bounded by Holland, Elmwood, Mead, and Newbury streets.
A small brook runs through about the centre of this area, and into this brook all surface water, as well as the house drainage, is discharged. In some places the brook is very shallow and has a very slight fall, and the water is spread over extended areas in stagnant pools, and in warm weather becomes very offensive. In houses adjacent to the brook considerable sickness has been noticed of a character directly traceable to this stagnant or slow-running brook. It is important that some improvement should be made of a tem- porary character which will more quickly dispose of the surface water.
Immediate steps should also be taken to dispose of the house drainage by a separate system of sewers, and the storm water by covered channels,- the house drainage to discharge into the Metro-
382
ANNUAL REPORTS.
politan sewer near Alewife brook, and the storm water into the- present brook west of Cameron avenue.
WOODBINE-STREET DISTRICT.
For several years the attention of the City Council has been directed to the unhealthy condition of this locality. The topography is very flat, and but little natural drainage can be expected. There- must, therefore, be in this locality considerable stagnant water. This in itself would not be unhealthy, but might be objectionable; but if the house drainage is allowed to flow out on the surface, the danger to health from this lack of drainage is more evident. There. are in this locality twelve houses from which the house drainage is discharged on the surface of the ground immediately adjacent to the houses. A sewer should be constructed through Woodbine street and across private lands and discharged into the sewer in Albion street.
All new work in the sewer department has been done by contract.
TABLES.
A table may be found in Appendix A, showing the location, size, cost per foot, assessment, and cost to the city of sewers built in the year 1892.
HIGHWAYS.
The work of the highway department does not come under the charge of the city engineer, and the following items and details are given below simply for information.
The cost and quantities have been compiled from the report of the committee on highways, and from the records and measurements of work done on file in the office of the city engineer.
The work of the highway department is done under the direc- tion of the superintendent of streets, Mr. Thomas H. Eames, to whom I am indebted for many facts from which my figures have been compiled, as well as for the uniform courtesy and assistance I have received from him during the year.
383
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
The appropriation for highways for 1890 was . ยท Add for collections for work done in former years, watering streets account (paving at stand-pipes), materials on hand, tools and property, profit on tools, property, and materials, and unpaid bills for materials 826 37
$55,000 00
$55,826 37
The items of expenditures are as follows : -
Laying out streets, advertising notices of hearings
$73 90
Construction of streets
3,883 91
Street crossings
2,420 73
Street signs erected
54 70
Repairs and improvement of streets in connection with setting edgestones 8,276 86
Repairs of Broadway, Cross to Marshall, on account
of constructing Broadway Parkway and conse- quent relaying of street railway tracks
5,272 20
Ordinary repairs of streets
10,230 40
General repairs of streets
13,331 02
Cleaning streets
4,774 65
Labor, laying brick and edgestone for single estates,
581 36
Repairs of brick sidewalks .
426 10
Repairs and draw-tender's salary on bridges
761 19
Retaining wall Washington street, Medford street to
Shawmut street ; grading and sodding slope and setting curbing Shawmut street to Boston & Lowell Railroad
760 00
Removing snow and ice from streets and sidewalks . Work done on sidewalks not assessed
110 78
Taxes on gravel land .
164 13
Shed at Wild Cat Hill gravel bank
104 54
Repairs at City Farm building
87 16
Superintendent's salary
1,600 00
Board of horses
418 31
Use of telephone
40 00
Amount carried forward
$54,740 37
1,368 43
384
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Amount brought forward
$54,740 37
Books, stationery, and printing
63 25
Sundry expenses
153 88
Private work not paid for in 1892
532 46
Total cost of work done
$55,489 96
Balance unexpended
336 41
$55,826 37
EDGESTONE AND BRICK SIDEWALKS.
The appropriation for edgestone and brick sidewalks
was
$10,000 00
Credit, sale of Winchester gravel land
200 00
Credit for materials
02
$10,200 02
Thirty-five sidewalks were laid in 1892, at a cost of
$20,438 05
Less assessments
10,219 04
$10,219 01
Advertising notices of hearings
25 00-
Cost to city
$10,244 01
Excess of expenditure over appropriation
$43 99
The work done is itemized as follows :-
Eighteen thousand two hundred and twenty-seven linear feet of edgestone.
Six thousand two hundred and eighteen and one-tenth square yards of brick sidewalk.
The repairs made on the main avenues in the city were confined to Broadway, from Cross to Marshall, Middlesex avenue, from Mystic avenue northwesterly, and Beacon street, from Kent street to Ivaloo street. In addition to this, Somerville avenue, Webster avenue, and Union square were paved. A descriptive account of this work of paving will be found under the head "City Engineer's Department," on page 367.
385
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
REPAIRS ON BROADWAY.
The repairs on Broadway were consequent upon the construction of the parkway and the incident change in the grade and location of the street railway tracks, alluded to under the head of "Broadway Parkway." The surface of the old roadway to a depth sufficient to allow for five inches of broken stone, and one inch of gravel in the roadway as rebuilt, and to conform to the grade of the parkway and the street railway tracks. The easterly half of the roadway was macadamized with stone purchased of the Massachusetts Broken Stone Co., the westerly half with stone from the city ledge; the latter stone is of soft slaty rock, the former of very hard trap rock. It will be of interest to notice the comparative value of the two kinds of rock, as both sides will be subject to the same wear. The cost of this work, as taken from the report of the committee on highways, was $5,272.20.
MIDDLESEX AVENUE.
In the reports of the city engineer for the years of 1891 and 1892, reference was made to the condition of the roadway of this ave- nue. It was barely safe for travel, and its condition was not at all creditable to the city. The surface of the road has been raised about twelve inches. About one-half the length of the street was covered with material excavated from the street surface on the site of the parkway on Broadway ; the remainder, with small ballast from a neigh- boring ledge. The stone was covered with a clayey gravel taken from that portion of Ten Hills Farm immediately adjoining the ave- nue. The cost of this work, as taken from the report of the commit- tee on highways, was $1,885.10.
BEACON STREET.
The repairs were made by removing the old surface and adding about five inches of ballast covered with two inches of broken stone screened from the old material and one inch of gravel.
This part of Beacon street has been in exceedingly bad condi- tion for a long time. The total cost of the improvement, as stated in the report of the committee on highways, was $857.50.
386
ANNUAL REPORTS.
LINWOOD STREET.
This street was re-macadamized. About five inches of broken stone was used and covered with one inch of gravel. The stone was purchased of F. W. Mead; the gravel teamed from Wild Cat Hill. The total cost of this work, as stated in the report of the committee on highways, was $2,507.60. The length of the street improved was 2,050 feet.
In 1885 this street was filled and macadamized at a co cost of $3,920.40 ; the linear feet of street improved at that time was 2,100.
If it were necessary to know what the annual cost of maintain- ing this street was, it should be remembered that the surface of this street was practically worn out in 1888, and its actual wearing time was not more than three years.
MEDFORD STREET, SOMERVILLE AVENUE TO THE CAMBRIDGE LINE.
In the year 1890 this street was thoroughly macadamized from the Fitchburg railroad to the Cambridge line with Mead stone. It was very thoroughly constructed, and was as good an example of a macadamized road as was ever built. At the end of a year the sur- face of the roadway was badly worn, and in the spring of 1892 it was entirely worn out. It has been in that condition ever since.
To account for so speedy destruction of a well-built macadam road, it is perhaps enough to state that the travel is unusually heavy and the subsoil unusually unsuitable for any road constructed with a gravel surface, whether of macadam or telford construction. The extremely large amount of teaming done by the North Packing & Provision Co., John P. Squire & Co., and the New England Dressed Meat & Wool Co., and the heavy loads which these teams carry, con- sidered in connection with the nature of the subsoil, which was for- merly marsh and is probably the most unsuitable for a foundation for any road intended for heavy traffic which could be encountered, are sufficient reasons for the results which appear in the complete destruction of the street surface.
The cost of the work done in 1890 was $1,235.56; and when it is known that the macadam road wore only one year, it must be evi- dent that its maintenance is very expensive. Some method of street
387
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
construction more in keeping with the traffic over it should be deter- mined upon before any further repairs are made.
MEDFORD STREET, GRANITE BLOCK PAVING.
The arguments advanced for paving Somerville avenue, com- pleted during the past year, will apply with greater force to the pav- ing of Medford street. The heavy travel is more concentrated than in Somerville avenue, and the street in that proportion more expen- sive to maintain.
The economy in paving is more evident if the cost of mainten- ance of a macadam road is compared with the first cost of paving. The cost of maintenance in a paved surface, if well laid on a good foundation, is so small for the first ten years that it can be omitted in a comparative statement of the cost of a macadam and paved street in this location.
The cost of paving Medford street, from Somerville avenue to the Cambridge city line, with granite blocks on a concrete foundation, not including the laying of any new edgestone or brick sidewalks, would not exceed $23,000. If the cost of the repairs in 1890 be in- creased in the proportion in which the increased length of street to be paved exceeds the length repaired in 1890, the estimated cost of repairing the length proposed to be paved would be $1,900. This sum would capitalize $47,500 at four per cent .; a sum more than double the cost of paving with granite blocks. If it is assumed that the macadam road would wear eighteen months instead of one year, an annual expenditure of $1,267 would be required to maintain a macadam road; a sum sufficient to capitalize $31,675 at four per cent., a sum which exceeds the cost of laying a granite block pave- ment by about $9,000.
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