USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > Town annual report of Braintree, Massachusetts for the year 1932 > Part 9
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Shear ploughs attached to Town trucks are used for the roadway ploughing.
There is a street patrol of two men who continue through the year clearing rubbish from the streets.
5. This miscellaneous work is fitted in between the other activities. Catch basins, however, are constructed in the early spring in advance of the street cleaning.
6. Unemployment work has been largely sidewalk con- struction : during this year about 21/2 miles of sidewalks have been constructed.
The Welfare work furnished by the Department con- sisted of assigning a foreman and a truck to the brush clearing, grass cutting and wood chopping operations: it included distributing wood and flour and some work on Audubon Road and on Liberty Street.
One apparent weakness in the organization of the De- partment lies in the fact that it is a "one man job," by which I mean that Mr. Austerberry is so much the per- sonal director of even the details of the work of the Department that, in his absence, I fear there would be a distinct loss of efficiency. He has no understudy. In the event of protracted illness of Mr. Austerberry the Town would suffer from this fact. It is suggested therefore that he train some man in his organization to take his place in emergency.
Of the $123,621 appropriated for 1932, the main pro- jects involving new work were:
Hayward Street, hot mix asphalt road- way pavement and curbs. $17,700
Adams Street, penetration macadam roadway at abandoned street car location: 5,800
198
Elm Street, cold mix asphalt roadway pavement at abandoned street car location 3,800
Sidewalks, cement (unemployment) . . 40,000
$67,300
The actual cost of these projects was within their respec- tive appropriations. Detailed costs were kept under the new accounting system of all of this work. The total and unit costs compare favorably with paving prices else- where. Of course it is easy to find cases where pavements have been recently constructed by contract for less than the Braintree costs, but often these low prices do not prop- erly reflect actual costs because of "unbalanced bidding" and because not a small quantity of road construction has been done during the present year at a loss.
There is always the question of whether or not new con- struction as distinguished from maintenance can be done at less cost by contract rather than by the Department. It is desirable to obtain the construction at least cost. It is also desirable to keep Braintree citizens employed. It is not advisable to carry a large value in road equipment that is seldom used. If a cement concrete pavement were to be laid in Washington Street, for example, it should be let out to contract because it is advisable and customary to use expensive machinery in this type of pavement con- struction. On the other hand, all work that is strictly maintenance work should be done by the Department. Between these two extremes lie many projects which some would class as maintenance, while others would call them replacement, surfacing, resurfacing, retread, etc. These are often the replacement of a worn-out surface by another of similar kind on top of the old surface,-it is called stage construction and lies so close to the classification of maintenance that there is no fine line of demarcation.
-
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Probably most of this work should also be done by the Department. In the case of placing a new bituminous surface layer of 2 inches or more over a large area, say, on a half mile or more of street, it is probable that contract prices can be obtained which will run lower than the actual cost if the work were done by the Department. Contract work of this character requires careful supervision and inspection. The Town is not now equipped to properly supervise such work under contract to the extent that it can be reasonably certain that the Town will receive the quality of work for which it contracts. As a class, bituminous pavements are the most costly to supervise on relatively small projects. It is quite a different matter for a state or large municipality which operates well- equipped laboratories to control bituminous pavement materials and workmanship.
The problem of unemployment often makes it advisable to hold within a Town Department sufficient work at least for the full employment of the regular force of the Depart- ment, even though some of that work might be let out to contract at a somewhat lower figure than its cost by De- partment labor.
Deducting the list of construction projects of this past year from the entire appropriation of the Department leaves for the operation and maintenance items about $56,300 for the following items :
Tarvia surface maintenance of road-
ways $17,000
Repairs to equipment, 7 trucks, 2 steam
rollers, 2 gasoline shovels and tractors 4,800
Street cleaning and patrol 5,600
Snow removal 10,000
General maintenance 9,100
200
Drains 2,100
Guard rails and fences. 2,000
Quincy Avenue bridge operation, bridge
repairs, street signs, traffic signal
maintenance and operation 1,200
Superintendent's salary 3,500
$56,300
During the months of May and June, 37 miles of street roadways were treated with Tarvia and sand at a cost of 2.082 cents per sq. yd. This is about 85% of the total streets which have this kind of a surface. In general most of these streets have to be given a light surface treatment each year, although some of them can go for two or even three years between treatments. This work has been done satisfactorily and the unit cost is reason- able. This $17,000 item, it will be noticed, is about a third of the total annual maintenance. I am not ready to say that a saving cannot be made in this cost because, when I was requested to make this analysis, this work was half done and was so soon completed that I had very little opportunity to examine into the matter as to wheth- er some of it might not have gone over for another year.
Repairs to equipment are done with a thoroughness which is creditable. The repairs on the Reo 11/2-ton truck run high. This truck was acquired from the Police Department and appears not to be suited to the rough usage it gets in the Highway Department.
Snow removal is a large item of cost. This amount depends not only upon the methods and efficiency of the actual work but largely upon the demands of the citizens. Only one storm has occurred since my employment, so I have had little opportunity to judge of the efficiency of handling this part of the maintenance. If the streets
201
and sidewalks are to be kept clear of snow and ice as in the past few winters, this amount appears to be required in the appropriation at least. Of course, an open winter may develop a saving in this item. If the people will be satisfied with less snow removal it can be reduced.
Snow removal and Tarvia Surfacing constitute half the entire annual maintenance cost. I have not had an opportunity to study either of these problems as I would like to have done.
Amounts not spent in appropriations for General Maintenance, Tarvia and other accounts, have been spent this year for aid in welfare work, about $3,700, most of which had nothing to do with work of the Department. This represents foremen and trucks assigned to welfare work and paid for out of the Highway Department's appropriations by letting certain of the maintenance work ride over into 1933. This fact should be taken into consideration in making up the 1933 appropriations for the Department.
(d) Way of Improving the Functioning of the Depart- ment
The personnel and organization of the Department is adequate. The equipment is not in all respects adequate, but is kept in working condition by appropriate mainte- nance. Some new equipment is needed. The Town Barn is inadequate. The functioning of the Department with the Sewer Department and the Water Department could be improved. Materials delivered under contract should be checked up more thoroughly to insure that the Town is getting the quality for which it is paying. The lease of Hannaford's Gravel Pit is advantageous.
New Equipment Needed. The following items of
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equipment are needed : an air compressor, drill sharpen- ing equipment, and replacement of the 5-ton truck.
A new air compressor mounted on a light chassis will cost about $2,500 complete : the necessary tools to go with. the compressor will cost about $500. Rentals paid dur- ing the past four years are as follows :
1929 $3,448.97 for 159 days These amounts include
1930 1,184.57 for 54 days ) about $8 per day for
1931 3,616.64 for 165 days ) labor, gasoline, oil, and
1932 1,596.07 for 73 days ) repairs.
It would have cost the Town much less than the total paid for rental had the Town owned a compressor during the past 4 years. The total number of days a compressor was rented was 451 : it would have cost the Town not over $10 per day for interest on investment and for operator, gasoline, oil, repairs and incidental maintenance per day of use of the machine, which would have made a total of $4,510 for the 4 years. The total rental paid was. $9,846.25, nearly double the operating cost, thus leaving enough to more than pay for the equipment in the 4 years. An air compressor which is properly cared for should be in fair condition after 451 days of use.
Another value is the fact that the equipment if owned. by the Town is available at a moment's notice and when it is actually needed, whereas now it must be hired when it is not in use elsewhere with the result that the Town pays for costly delays. Air compressors are used to per -. form work which is too hard or too slow for hand labor. It is often required to remove obstacles encountered in excavation work which are not suspected until the earth above them has been removed. The air equipment is. therefore required immediately or else work must be either held up for a while or be carried on uneconomically ..
203
It is essentially an equipment to meet emergencies and should therefore be at hand at all times. This equipment could also be used by the Water and Sewer Departments when not in use by the Highway Department.
It is recommended that an air compressor mounted on a light chassis be purchased at a cost including the neces- sary air tools not to exceed $3,000.
A drill sharpening machine and appurtenances should be a part of the Department's regular equipment rather than to continue the practice of sending all machine drills away to be sharpened. The amounts the Town has paid for sharpening drills for the past 4 years is as follows :
1929
$430.80
@ 20c per bit plus 20c
1930
723.20
for shank, which
1931
236.80
amounts to about $3
1932
842.20
per set of 12 drills.
$2,233.00
These figures do not include the cost of transporting the drills to and from the blacksmith in a neighboring city. This drill sharpening can be done by the blacksmith of the Department if he is supplied with the proper sharpening machine and tools. It will save considerable cost of transportation and will give the work to a Braintree citi- zen. Such work will then be directly under the eye of the Superintendent and can thus be done at the best times between other work of the blacksmith. These will all effect economies.
A drill sharpener, shank and bit punch and oil furnace will be required for this purpose, which will cost not over $1,200, including necessary tools and accessories. It is recommended that this equipment be procured in the interest of economy.
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A new 5-ton truck will soon be needed by the Depart- ment to replace an old truck. During the present year all of the seven trucks of the Department have been in constant use. The oldest White 5-ton truck is 9 years old : and, if the Department is expected to assist on wel- fare work during 1933 as it has in 1932, this old White truck cannot be depended upon to carry through the year. It has already run over 150,000 miles and is not worth the expense of a general overhauling. There are two alter- nates to this problem ;- either to purchase a new truck to take its place or get along as well as possible with the old truck and hire a truck when the present equipment is not sufficient. It should be borne in mind, however, that the average economical life of a truck that is kept moving and which is also kept in good repair is about 7 years. Since the Department owns 7 trucks and all are kept busy, it is to be expected that an average of one truck per year must. be replaced by a new truck.
·
It is recommended that the Department purchase a. new 5-ton truck for an amount not to exceed $5,000.
The Town Barn at Union Street is inadequate. There is barely room for the storage of the motor trucks of the Department and no opportunity to put the rest of the equipment under cover. Office facilities of the Superin- tendent are inadequate. The following equipment has to be stored out of doors in all weather :
4 sidewalk tractors
1 roadway tractor
2 gasoline shovels (1/2 c. yd. and 3/4 c. yd. capacities)
1 18-ton steam roller
1 6-ton steam roller
Truck roadway snow ploughs
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Sidewalk snow ploughs 300 ft. steel curbing forms 600 ft. steel sidewalk forms
There is also insufficient storage space for spare parts which should be kept under lock and key. The black- smith shop should be in the building or adjacent to it. It is now 100 yards away from the Town Barn.
To provide the proper space will require extending the present building 100 ft., constructing it with brick walls and terra cotta partitions, two stories in height, at a cost of about $15,000. This would then permit storage of all equipment indoors where it can be properly overhauled, especially in the winter.
There is ample land at the Town Barn site for the pro- posed extension and for expanding to a much larger materials yard should the Town later decide to combine the Water, Sewer and Highway Departments under one authority.
Here is another opportunity to make use of the unem- ployed. Such a building would be simple in design and could be readily constructed by the Department. Work on this building could go forward in cold weather when such work as sidewalk work cannot be undertaken.
Unless it is the opinion that the Town Barn as now located is the site for a permanent materials yard the suggested extension of the building should not be adopted. The investment in buildings on the present site is so small an amount that their value is negligible in determining whether or not to view this site as the place for a perma- nent Town Barn. The location of the Town Barn is cen- tral and appears to be favorable in most respects. There is, however, no railroad sidetrack nor possibility of ob-
20€
taining one on the property. The amount of materials that are likely to be delivered by rail to the Town depart- ments in car load lots is very limited, and if a carload were delivered it would probably have to be unloaded into trucks and hauled to another part of the yard for storage. Nearly all road materials are now transported from the quarry or pit directly to the street where it is to be used. . There appears to be no reason to consider the absence of a sidetrack as a serious defect in the Town Barn site.
The above-mentioned needs of the Department, namely, the air compressor, drill sharpener, truck and barn exten- sion, are all capital expenditures which should be seri- ously considered if the problem is viewed solely from the standpoint of a business economics. It is recognized, however, that present business conditions are so unusual that it may not be prudent to immediately spend the Town's money for these needed improvements. Further- more, as suggested elsewhere in this report, it seems to be the time to go slow on new pavement construction, which means that the Department will be running on comparatively limited appropriations in 1933 at least. Whether or not any or all of the above suggestions are adopted is closely coupled with the unemployment prob- lem. If considerable new sidewalk work is to be under- taken on streets where ledge excavation will be encoun- tered, the air compressor will be required. If no sidewalk work is to be authorized, but the extension of the Town Barn is undertaken with unemployment labor, then the air compressor may not be required.« If the unemployed are to be used on sewer construction, the compressor may be needed. While I have recommended that these expendi- tures be made, I fully realize that there may be good reasons for not making appropriations for all of them, and perhaps for any of them, this coming year.
Cooperation between the Highway Department and the
--
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Sewer and Water Departments might be improved. Just how this can be accomplished under the present organiza- tion of three distinct departments is not clear. The Highway Department should have more control than at present over the replacement of pavements at the sewer and water trenches, yet there should not be a division of authority that will involve an unbusinesslike division of responsibility. The Water Department as well as the Sewer Department is leaving pavement over trenches in such condition that they require considerable mainte- nance by the Highway Department to keep them in a rea- sonable safe condition for street travel. It is customary in many municipalities to require public utility companies to obtain a permit from the street department for all street openings and to make sufficient deposit to cover the cost of replacing the pavement. It is conceivable that such a policy might be applied in the case of the Water and Sewer Departments, inasmuch as the cost of repaving is a legitimate charge against projects undertaken by these departments.
Since the construction and maintenance of all three de- partments lies almost wholly in the streets and are there- fore so interrelated, one naturally asks why these three departments are not combined under one head. If these three departments and the Engineering Department were combined into one Department of Public Works under the direction of an experienced engineer, it is highly probable that economies could be effected that would be consider- able. Such a position should obviously be free from political influence. One method of accomplishing this end might be to form a commission of, say, five unpaid members, elected by the Town, who shall select the Super- intendent of Public Works and to whom he shall report. There are plenty of public-spirited business men in Brain-
208
tree who should be willing to serve on such a commission whose judgment would be invaluable to the Town.
Inspection of purchased materials is rather loosely done at present; it is too superficial. It is recommended that the Department be given sufficient appropriation to have the materials tested to ascertain if the quality and quantity specified is actually being delivered. Especially is this necessary in the matter of bituminous -road materials. Many municipalities "fall down" in this matter because they do not possess the necessary laboratories for the tests; but it is a simple matter to have tests made at com- mercial laboratories at a reasonable cost. There may be -- some practical difficulties in complying with this sugges- tion, principally the necessity for prompt results from the tests before the work has progressed too far, but methods can be adopted which will overcome most of these diffi- culties. Certain preliminary tests can be promptly applied in many cases which will give a pretty reliable in- dication as to whether or not the final and complete tests will prove that the material is satisfactory.
The Town has no Town scales for weighing road materials and other materials it purchases. Such an equipment would be very useful to the Highway Depart- ment and could be made use of to the Town's advantage. The quantities as well as the qualities of road materials purchased should be more completely checked.
Broken stone, gravel and sand constitute the primary materials of roadway and sidewalk construction. The Town owns a suitable quarry from which it obtains broken stone at a cost which is probably not less than it could be purchased from local quarries ; but it has the ad- vantage that stock piles of different sized stones can be kept at the quarry for immediate use when and where required. The work of quarrying gives an opportunity
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for Braintree labor and to some extent for unemployed and welfare labor.
It has, until this year, been the custom of the Town to purchase gravel and sand from local companies. During the present year a favorable lease was entered into by the Selectmen whereby for $3,500 the Town has been granted the right to remove all of the sand and gravel it wishes during a seven-year period from the Hannaford pit. The Town Engineer estimates that the quantity in this pit is . 140,000 cu. yds. The Town has been paying 50c per cu. yd. for unwashed gravel at local pits and 35c per cu. yd. for unwashed sand.
It has cost this year to remove 7,659 cu. yds. of sand and gravel about 10c per cu. yd. The pit was not occu- pied by the Town until August, 1932. The cost to the Town of $3,500 for a seven-year period amounts with interest to an annual cost of about $600. During the short time in which the pit was at the disposal of the Town this year, the saving on gravel and sand costs amounted to about $2,100 over the cost had the materials been pur- chased locally. During a full year's use of the pit, the savings would obviously run much higher.
The lease of this pit by the Selectmen appears, there- fore, to have been wholly favorable to the Town.
The position of Superintendent of the Highway Depart- ment should be removed from possibility of political influ- ence to the extent, at least, of making the position secure against discharge without charges being preferred and a hearing. He should have full authority over the employ- ment and discharge of the men in his Department and over expenditures (within appropriations) within reason- able limits. Such protection as is now given the Chief of Fire Department through the operation of Sec. 42 of · Chapter 48 of the Revised Laws would be adequate.
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I am inclined to the conviction that the underlying cause of the criticism of this Department may be trace- able back to the fact that it is peculiarly open to political influence. This is more likely in view of the fact that other Town departments are protected by law as indi- cated. It takes months and years to train men to become good road foremen. It is for the Town's benefit that the Superintendent be given so complete control over the employment and discharge of his men that he can feel assured that his efforts in training them may not be lost through political influence.
If the Superintendent is not competent, he should be discharged and a competent man put in his place. If he is the right man for the job, then he is entitled to the protec- tion here indicated.
(e) Construction program for the next few years
The study of the roadway pavement problem should naturally be predicated upon pavement conditions and the amount and character of traffic. Consequently, traffic counts have been taken on typical streets. These counts were taken for periods varying from 4 to 9 hours' dura- tion. The results have been correlated to other counts made by the State Department of Public Works and have been projected into probable average figures for a typical week-day and for Sunday traffic as given in the following table.
STREET TRAFFIC ON TYPICAL STREETS IN BRAINTREE
Average Weekday Traffic Exclusive of Saturday and Sunday
Width
Trucks
Trucks
Sun- of days Road-
Street
ger
than
and TOTAL
in
Existing Pavement
Autos
2 tons
over
August
way Ft.
Quincy Ave. (State Route 3)
7,000
1,000
8,000
20,000
46
Penetration macadam
Franklin St. (State Route 37 and 128)
3,500
500
4,000
12,000
34
Cold mix on concrete
Washington St. north of West St
4,075
490
435
5,000
9,000
38
Penetration macadam
Washington St. at Town Hall
3,200
500
300
4,000
7,000
30
Cold mix on concrete
Hancock St.
4,000
7,000
26
Penetration macadam
Commercial St. at Faxon
1,910
450
140
2,500
4,000
34
Hot mix macadam
Elm St. at Vinton
1,535
210
155
1,900
4,000
34
Penetration macadam
West St. at Tremont
1,430
210
260
1,900
4,000
34
Penetration macadam
Union St. at Railroad.
1,235
325
240
1,800
3,500
34
Penetration macadam
Commercial St. south of Adams
1,250
280
170
1,700
4,500
31
Penetration macadam
Pearl St. north of Railroad
2,000
900
29 Hot mix macadam
Holbrook Ave.
1,500
700
21 Tar surfaced gravel
Summer St.
600
200
21
Tar surfaced gravel
Shaw St. Norfolk Sq. to Mill Lane
1,500
2,300
34
Tar surfaced gravel
Grove St. at Liberty (State 128)
1,370
165
115
1,650
3,000
44
Penetration macadam
211
Passen- less
2 tons
Pond St. at Torrey School
1,080
220
100
1,400
2,800
33 Penetration macadam
Adams St. at Morrison Road
1,080
205
115
1,400
3,500
34 Penetration macadam
Centre St. at underpass
885
125
190
1,200
2,000
30
Tar surfaced gravel
Hayward St. east of Commercial.
840
125
135
1,100
1,500
34 Hot mix macadam
Elm St. at Elmlawn
580
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