USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1893 > Part 24
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All the sewers which remained unfinished at the close of the year 1892 (see table in annual reports of 1892, page 358) have been finished during the year.
Twenty-six sewers have been constructed during the year, being four in excess of the number built in 1892.
Thirty-eight catch-basins have been built, while in 1892 there were twenty-six.
The bills unpaid (see page 439) amounting to $6,115.49, are balances on contracts and for drain pipe.
For the committee,
CHARLES B. SANBORN, Chairman. WILLIAM P. MITCHELL, Clerk.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SEWERS.
443
SEWERS BUILT IN 1893.
STREET.
FROM.
To.
LENGTH IN
TOTAL COST.
ASSESSMENT.
COST TO
Banks Street
Elm Street
Northeasterly Near Summer Street
803.
821.39
820.76
.63
Billingham St.
Broadway
Summit Street Northeasterly
383.2
969.73
453.69
516.04
Billingham St. Broadway
William Street Paulina Street Broadway
Near Curtis St. Southwesterly
159.6
265.31
261.44
3.87
Chandler Street Charnwood Road Ellington Road Elm Street
William Street Highland Ave. Broadway
Northwesterly Near Summit St.
252.5
197.11
126.10
71.01
Granite Street
Somerville Ave. Elm Street
Osgood Street Southeasterly
376.2
861.57
431.33
430.24
Kenwood Street Lawrence Street
Billingham St. Wilton Street
Near Elm St. Cutler Street Broadway
201.9
176.14
174.80
1.34
Paulina Street, Broadway Liberty Ave.
Holland Street, Paulina Street Broadway
Liberty Ave. near Powder House Ter- race
3,854.7
18,364.24
5,703.13
12,661.11
Private Lands
Albion Street northeasterly & southeasterly Private Lands
Lowell St.
Woodbine St. extension
1,310.6
1,052.62
899.94
152.68
Private Lands and Woodbine St.
Lowell Street Woodbine St.
Centre Street near Albion St. J
Richdale Ave.
Essex Street Near Morrison Avenue
Frederick Ave.
331.5
403.32
399.16
4,16
School Street
Southwesterly
150.3
180.67
179.14
1.53
Summit Street
Madison Street Billingham St. Highland Ave. Vine Street
Near Elm St. Crown Street Northwesterly
586.8
747.00
745.31
1.69
Vine Court
Broadway
Southwesterly
160.6
257.92
184.39
73.53
Wallace Street Warwick Street
Cedar Street
Southeasterly
682.
1,861.82
959.23
902.59
West Street
Heath Street
Southwesterly
274.3
377.16
283.37
93.79
Winslow Ave. York Terrace
Villa Avenue Central Street
Northwesterly Harvard Place
267.9
273.08
272.83
.25
13,893.0
$35,562.00 $17,169.80 $18,211.46
Less amount paid from appropriation of 1892. (See Annual Reports of 1892, page 358.)
$4,609.52
4,609.52
And cost of constructing Richdale ) Avenue Sewer, paid for by abutters and not assessed.
180.74
4,790.26
Total amount paid from appropriation of 1893,
$30,771.74
$13,601.94
CITY.
362.5
$ 476.81
$ 427.08
$ 49.73
Benton Avenue
Highland Ave.
181,2
678.53
222.30
456.23
981.3
2,187.54
1,596.48
591.06
Gordonia Road
633.
672.48
670.92
1,56
662.4
1,961.88
1,104.30
857.58
468.
1,083.51
584.29
499.22
Hall Avenue
220.
742.26
266.28
475.98
Centre Street
Southeasterly
172.7
180.74
Rogers Avenue
Tower Street
135.6
57.93
57.66
.27
120.1
78.34
74.67
3.67
161.1
632.90
271.20
361.70
Lowell Street
FEET.
REPORT
OF THE
CITY ENGINEER.
CITY OF SOMERVILLE.
IN BOARD OF ALDERMEN, February 14, 1894. 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, February 15, 1894. CHARLES S. ROBERTSON, Clerk.
CITY OF SOMERVILLE.
OFFICE OF CITY ENGINEER, SOMERVILLE, February 14, 1894.
To his Honor the Mayor and the City Council :-
In compliance with City Ordinance, Chapter 9, Section 9, the following report of the City Engineer for the year ending Decem- ber 31, 1893, is respectfully submitted :-
ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT.
The number of persons permanently employed during the year 1893 has been nine. The expenses of the department have been as follows :
Salary of city engineer
$2,400.00
Salary of assistants
- 5,610.53
Supplies .
167.16
Car fares .
70.12
Transit
260.00
Tapes and plumbs .
20.42
Use of transit, 1892 and 1893
91.00
Repairs and adjustment of instruments and tools
65.20
$8,684.43
The items of expenditures for salaries of assistants are as follows :-
Giving lines and grades for edgestone and brick side- walks, examining titles of abutters, and comput- ing assessments and cost $806.89
448
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Amount brought forward . $806.89
Giving lines and grades for defining street lines, for grading and macadamizing streets, revising ac- ceptance plans, and examining titles of abutters Making surveys and giving lines and grades for public sewers, examining titles of abutters, computing assessments and making assessment plans, locat- ing and recording private drains, giving lines and grades for building catch-basins, and rebuilding old sewers .
433.63
Giving lines and grades for laying water-pipe, mak- ing surveys and plans, locating and recording locations of mains, services and plans for a wooden building at the High-Service Station. and affixing house numbers to service applications 386.40 City survey 363.94
Grade and lines, and clerical work for department of public grounds 149.62
Surveys and plans, grades, lines Nathan Tufts Park . Preparing plans for numbering streets and affixing street numbers to houses .
704.07
Indexing note-books and plans and keeping office records 173.42
374.79
Copying plans at Middlesex Registry of Deeds and work done for the assessors' department
65.83
City map
93.68
Surveys, lines and grades for street railroads
29.23
Surveys and lines for Somerville Electric Light Co. Surveys, plans, grades. lines and estimates for paving
6.23
Washington Street from Union Square to the easterly line of Medford Street . 124.84
Miscellaneous, including sketches and plans for police and law departments, to be used in accident and criminal cases, surveys and estimates for the public property department, lines and grades for public buildings . 378.17
$5,610.52
1,519.79
449
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
CITY SURVEY.
This subject was brought to the attention of the City Council of 1893, in the annual report of the City Engineer for that year. It is not necessary to repeat what was printed in the last report, nor ·is it hardly possible to make a stronger statement of reasons why some progress should be made during the year 1894.
The laying out of streets, setting edgestone, paving streets, lay- ing sewers, water and gas main, drains and services, can all be better carried on and recorded if some systematic survey is made.
Plans for street widenings and extensions cannot be made, with such information as we now possess, without a great deal of delay by reason of the time taken for making surveys.
Such work, when done in a hurry, is often rough and inaccu- rate and not of much value. Frequent changes and corrections are required and the quality of the work presented is often of little value to the city, and is no credit to the engineer.
It is probable that the City Council may soon be called upon to discuss the question of requiring all electric lighting, telephone, telegraph and fire alarm wires to be placed under ground in con- duits to be built and maintained by the city ; and if at any time the City Council should decide in favor of this plan. it would seem that, in view of the extended use made of the streets in this city for electric light, telephone and fire alarm wires, it would be almost impossible to do the necessary engineering work with only the in- formation at present on file in their office, and a new survey would be a necessity. There should be no further delay in this work. I would respectfully call your attention to the annual reports of the city engineer for the year 1891 and 1892, and would recommend that an appropriation of $500 be made for this purpose.
It will be seen, in the items of expenditure on page 448, that $363,94 has been spent during the year on work that can be called a part of the city survey. Only such work has been done as was absolutely necessary for the completion of sewer assessment and street numbering plans, and has necessarily been distributed over small areas in widely scattered districts. Under the present method the amount of work done depends entirely on the amount of work done by the sewer department in building new sewers.
450
ANNUAL REPORTS.
STREET MONUMENTS.
The attention of the City Council of 1893 was called by the city engineer in the annual report of 1892, to the importance of setting stone monuments at street angles and intersections, and a recommendation was made that the sum of $500 be appropriated for the purpose, but without result.
The importance of properly defining street lines by immovable records of location must be evident to any one at all conversant wit's municipal affairs. It is not enough that plans shall be filed and note books kept, on which are represented offsets to buildings or fences from street lines.
The buildings shown on office records are often moved ; fences are taken down, and the evidences of their existence entirely remov- ed. In such cases, how can the street line be re-established and the identical location be determined? It often happens that the street line cannot be re-established with any assurance that the new loca- tion is correct, and if surveys of abutting property were made from the original location, it becomes impossible to reconcile the old sur- vey with one made from a second location of the street line, and disputes and suits arise as a consequence.
Another difficulty under the present system is that offsets from buildings are seldom interpreted by two men alike. As a conse- quence delays occur and the office is often obliged to do work which private surveyors would do if the street lines were otherwise defined.
To prevent all disputes and provide an immovable location of street lines, stone monuments should be set at deflections in street lines and at intersections. These monuments should be marked with some letter or device, that they may be readily distinguished, and that they may be respected by owners of adjacent estates and be allowed to remain in their original positions.
The attention of the City Council is again called to the refer- ence to this matter in the annual report for the year 1892, and the recommendation is repeated that the sum of $500 be appropriated for placing stone monuments at such points as may be necessary to properly define street lines.
451
1
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
OFFICE ACCOMMODATIONS.
The room now occupied by the city engineer's department is entirely too small to properly accomplish the work demanded. The table area is such that, when the whole force is engaged on office work, not half room enough can be found for the plans and materials in use. The cases for filing plans are over-crowded, and plans are liable to injury because of the lack of room, even if the utmost care is taken in handling them.
The safe is so crowded with plans and note-books that it will be impossible to use it another season unless some plans and books are kept on the office tables. The construction of the vault is such that, if the city building were destroyed by fire, the plans and note- books stored therein would be entirely destroyed.
The value of note-books containing surveys made during twenty years, of plans showing the location and depth of sewers and appurtenances, the location of inlets, house drains, the location and depth of ledge in sewer trenches, the amount of sewer assessment with the frontages and areas on which such assessments are based ; show- ing taking of land for sewers and highways ; the laying out of streets, dating back to 1860 ; the subdivision of land of even earlier dates, which plans, if destroyed, could not be duplicated ; of plans show- ing water distribution ; of records of sidewalk assessments and of books containing abstracts of deeds dating back to 1872, and com- piled for purposes of sewer and sidewalk assessments, cannot be estimated ; and, if destroyed, could never be replaced.
If the contents of this vault were destroyed there would then be no record of street lines in existence. A survey of the entire city would be needed before street lines could be re-established, and at a very great expenditure of time and money.
The information recorded on sewer plans could not be duplica- ted without an enormous expenditure of time and money. It does. not seem as though such a detailed description of the value of the office records were necessary, or that so much need be written concerning the importance of providing a suitable fire-proof room for filing plans and books, and the danger to which the city pro- perty is subjected every day the matter remains unattended to.
The same arguments were advanced in the annual report
452
ANNUAL REPORTS.
of the city engineer for the year 1892, and no action has yet been taken, yet the arguments then advanced can be used with greater strength to-day than last year.
An urgent recommendation is hereby made that this matter receive the early attention of the City Council, and that immediate steps be taken to afford a fire-proof room for plans and more suit- able accommodations for the department.
PAVING WASHINGTON STREET.
The condition of the Washington Street roadway from Union Sqaure to Medford Street has been for many years as bad as any city thoroughfare could be. The amount and character of the travel was such that no macadam road could be maintained in safe condition for travel more than a few months without extensive repairs. The cross-section of the roadway was such that there was no crown on the northerly half; and it was so distorted by the grades established for edgestone, and the crown of the street be- tween the car track and the southerly edgestone was so great, that the road surface, as fast as it became worn, was thrown into the gutters, thus preventing drainage and destroying the surface of the road.
During the year Washington Street from Union Square to the easterly line of Medford Street has been paved with granite blocks. The edgestones on both sides of the street have been re-set and the grades adjusted to obtain a proper cross-section of roadway. The sidewalks on both sides of the street were re-laid at the new grades, so adjusted as not to cause any material damage to abutting estates. The changes were made at a nominal expense to the city, the only charge being for re-building fences in front of two estates.
The area between the edgestone and the outside rails of the street railway tracks and the area between the tracks was paved by the city. The area between the rails of each track was paved by the West End Street Railway Co. with blocks furnished by the company.
The pavement was laid on a gravel foundation not less than four inches in depth, the joints filled with gravel and one inch of
453
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
gravel spread on the surface after the blocks had been rammed. The edgestones were re-set, pointed on joints and faces, and the brick sidewalks re-paved.
The average cut due to the change in grade was three inches, and the depth of excavation for the gravel foundation was eleven inches ; making the total average depth of excavation fourteen inches. The specifications required the blocks to be of the follow- ing dimensions :- width, 3} to 4} inches ; length, 8 to 12 inches, to average not less than 10 inches; depth, 7 to 8 inches. The average number of blocks per square yard laid was about twenty- six.
The blocks used by the city were furnished by the Rockport Granite Company and delivered at the wharf of the West End power station, East Cambridge. The crossings were laid with two rows of granite flagging, twenty-four inches wide, and were delivered on the work by the city.
The paving blocks were hauled from the wharf by the con- tractor and at his expense. The gravel was furnished and delivered by the contractor, and the cost included in the price submitted for paving and regulating.
The contract for paving and regulating was awarded to William H. Gore, and the work was done in a thorough and satisfactory manner. A canvas of bids will be found in Appendix E.
The items of quantities and cost are as follows :-
172, 585 granite blocks, including wharfage, culling, piling, tools, lumber, and sundries $12,937.93
2,603.1 lin. ft. edgestone reset 650.78
22.60
46 lin. ft. edgestone furnished and delivered 2,060.8 sq, ft. granite flagging delivered $0.36 15,500. bricks delivered
741.89
217.00
6,667.6 sq. yds. granite block paving .
6,100.85
2,654.5 sq. yds. sidewalk relaid ·
1,061.80
288.6 sq. yds. crossings laid .
324.68
Forty-one days inspecting of materials and work
205.00
Amount carried forward .
$22,262.53
454
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Amount brought forward $22,262.53
Labor at dump, piling cobble stones from old
gutters, and spreading surplus material from excavation 135.81 · Labor and materials, raising fence at Nos. 224 and 230
18.00
Extra work, re-setting edgestone
3.09
Repairing paving
12.75
Lumber
19.78
Car fares
1.60
$22,453.56
The cost of changing grades of catch-basins and
manholes was 93.71
Total cost of paving
$22,547.27
PLANS AT MIDDLESEX REGISTRY OF DEEDS.
Tracings have been made of all plans of real estate, in Somer- ville filed at the Registry of Deeds during the past year, and the index of streets, owners and surveyors' names, date and record and number of plans on record has been revised.
A plan and profile has been made showing the established grade of Broadway from the Boston City line to Cross Street. ·
SEWER DEPARTMENT.
Assessments have been levied for thirteen thousand eight hundred and ninety-three linear feet, or two and six-tenths miles of sewers. Of this amount two thousand four hundred thirty-four linear feet were constructed in 1892, under contracts not completed in that year, and were not assessed until 1893. The total cost of construction for which assessments were levied in 1893 was $35, 415.00. The amount of assessments for these sewers was $17,350.52 ; the balance, $18,064.48, was assumed by the city and paid from Funded Debt account.
455
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
Fifty-five feet of brick sewer have been rebuilt at a cost of $150.81, and the cost charged to inaintenance account.
The sewer in Paulina Street, Broadway and Liberty Avenue, completed this year, was begun in the fall of 1892. The drainage area of this sewer is about one hundred twenty-nines acres, although but forty- five acres are comprised in the area drained by this sewer with its laterals as constructed to date. Eighty-four acres is com- prised in the Tufts College lands ; but there is no reason to expect that sewers will be required in this area for a long time.
The lateral sewers have all been constructed in this district. The entire cost of the main sewer with laterals was $22,639.62, and the cost to the city was $14,819.99.
The necessity for the construction of the sewer in Private Lands, Lowell Street, Woodbine and Centre Streets, has been urged by the Board of Health and the city engineer for several years. Its completion will obviate a long-continued nuisance.
SEWER IN GLEN STREET AND PRIVATE LANDS.
About fifty-five feet of this sewer were rebuilt during the year, and completes the work of rebuilding begun in 1892. The cost of the work done in 1893 was $150.81, and the total cost of rebuild- ing was $742.16.
A description of the original construction of this sewer, the defects in its construction, and the manner of rebuilding will be found in the report of the city engineer for the year 1892.
The total length of public sewers build in the city to January 1, 1894, is two hundred ninety-seven thousand seven hundred thirteen and five-tenths feet.
In Appendix A will be found a table showing the location, size. length, average cut, average cost per linear foot itemized, total cost, assessment, and cost to the city of sewers built in the year 1893.
RICHDALE AVENUE SEWER.
This sewer was laid in 1886, by private parties, and at no ex- pense to the city. That part between Essex and School Streets has been relaid by the city, substituting twelve inch pipe for eight inch. A manhole was built near the School Street end.
456
ANNUAL REPORTS.
The change was made because the sewer was too small to pro- perly dispose of the drainage from the houses during heavy rains and to carry the storm water collected in this part of the street.
PRIVATE DRAINS.
Four hundred and four permits for laying house drains and thirty for repairs of drains were issued during the year.
Drains have all been located, the locations referred to the house, properly recorded in note-books, plotted on the assessment plans, and indexed.
The cost of the inspection of drains was $643.66. The inspec- tion of the past year has been more thorough than in years before. More attention has been paid to the manner of laying drains, and the contractor has been required to lay the whole length of the drain from the sewer to the house before back filling; thereby ob- taining a better control of the work than has ever been had. More attention has been paid to the method of back filling trenches and to the condition of the surface of the street after the trench is filled.
CATCH BASINS.
Thrirty-nine catch basins were built during the year at a cost of $3,077.26. Three have been rebuilt at a cost of $102.56. The number of catch basins in use January 1, 1894, was seven hundred fifty.
Seventeen catch-basins have been repaired at a cost of $214.19 ; an average cost of $12.60.
The cost of changing the grade and line of thirty-three catch- basins was $254.54 ; an average cost of $7.71 per catch-basin.
Eleven hundred twenty catch-basins were cleaned, 2,280 loads, or 2,670 cubic yards of material were removed and disposed of at a cost of $1,530.17 ; an average cost of $1.37 per basin, $0.67 per load and $0.57 per cubic yard.
The cost of removing snow, ice, and street dirt from the open- ings of catch basins was $209.00.
Fifteen miles of pipe sewers were flushed at a cost of $358.12, an average cost per mile of $23.88, or $4.52 per thousand feet.
457
REPORT OF THE CITY ENGINEERS.
The cost of cleaning outfall ditches at Winthrop Avenue, Austin, North Union, and Waverly Streets was $226.44.
The material taken from catch-basins and sewers is composed almost entirely of gravel and dirt washed from the street to the gut- ters, and thence carried by the heavy rains to the catch-basins and sewers. The material which accumulates in the gutters during a rain is washed to the gutters near the catch-basins, and there accu- mulates and remains until a succeeding rain carries to the catch-basin. This accumulation works injury in two ways ; first, by the filling of gutters the storm water runs on the road bed to the injury of its sur- face, and, second, by an unnecessary increase in the quantity of ma- terial and the increased cost of removing it from the sewers.
If the work of cleaning gutters cannot be done by the Highway Department, it would be much cheaper for the Sewer Department to remove the material as it is deposited in the gutters, than to re- move it from the catch-basin or sewer.
The cost of changing the grade and line of thirty manholes was $132.86 ; an average cost of $4.43 per manhole.
The cost of cleaning nineteen manhole dirt catchers was $72.75.
BRIDGE STREET OUTLET.
The cost of dredging was .
$2,437.15
The items of cost are as follows :-
3,361.5 cubic yards material dredged,
at $0.65 .
$2,184.97
Labor, advertising, teaming, water, and clothing
252.18
$2,437.15
Five-ninths of this amount-$1,353.98-was paid by the City of Somerville, the balance by the City of Cambridge.
EXTENSION OF THE WINTHROP AVENUE SEWER.
In the annual report of the city engineer for the year 1888, the attention of the City Council was first called to the necessity for remedying the serious trouble occasioned by the discharge of sewage
458
ANNUAL REPORTS.
at the end of this sewer at Mystic Avenue into an open ditch eight hundred feet long, thence to be discharged into a small creek lead- ing to the Mystic River. It is not necessary that the arguments ad- vanced in 1888 and continued through successive reports should be repeated, but it is hoped that some action will be taken in the line of the suggestion made in previous reports to which your attention is respectfully directed.
The recommendations made in previous years are continued, that some action be taken by the City Council, which will result in abating the serious consequences which may follow if the present outlet is maintained.
INTERCEPTING SEWER IN THE LOCATION OF THE BOSTON AND
LOWELL RAILROAD.
The urgent need of making some change in the sewerage system of that part of the city between Highland Avenue, Willow Avenue, Broadway, Cross Street, and Medford Street, whereby a different . method of storm water disposal may be provided, and an outlet made for considerable areas of unoccupied land which must be pro- vided with sewers on the separate system, has been presented to the City Council in the several annual reports of the city engineer since the year 1888.
In this area several streets have been laid out, and macadamized during the past year, on which there is no way of disposing of storm water except by running the water in the gutters for long distances, or until some point of discharge is found where it can be disposed of through some water course or ditch dug across private land. If the water is run in the gutters for long distances, the gutters soon run overfull, and the surface of the road is washed away. The ac- cumulation of water in the streets inconveniences the public, and the discharge of water from the streets in open ditches through pri- vate land frequently results in injury to property.
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