The Old Pike Part 9

ENGINEER DEPARTMENT.

WASHINGTON, July 29, 1834.

_Sir_: It has just been determined by the War Department that the subst.i.tution of wood for stone, in the superstructures of the bridges on the new piece of road around Wills hill would be deemed by the State of Maryland a substantial compliance with the requirements of her law giving a.s.sent to the change from the old to the present location of that part of the road. You will, therefore, build the abutments of those bridges in a good and durable manner, of the best stone to be had in your immediate neighborhood, and make the superstructure of wood. These last, when completed, must be well covered, and painted in the best manner. This is communicated in answer to your two letters of the 23d and 24th instant, on the subject, which are at hand.

I am, &c., C. GRATIOT.

Capt. R. Delafield, Corps of Engineers. c.u.mberland, Md.

COPY OF INSTRUCTIONS SENT BY THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE c.u.mBERLAND ROAD, EAST OF THE OHIO, TO EACH OF HIS a.s.sISTANTS ON THE LINE OF THE ROAD.

WHEELING, May 29, 1834.

_Sir_: In conducting the operations for repairing the section of the road under your supervision, during the present season, two very important alterations will be made in the system of last year.

The first is to retain, in all cases, the old bed or pavement, breaking down with sledges the prominent or projecting pieces into the ruts and holes, and smoothing the grade with quarry chips, or stone broken on the face of the road with sledge-hammers, slightly covering the bed so prepared with the earth from the ditches, observing to put no more earth than is barely sufficient to prevent the metal coming in contact with the large stone of the bed.

Where there is no stone in the old bed, restore the grade with the best and hardest material to be found in the vicinity, making it a point to have stone to fill the large holes. This formation of the bed for the metal on top of the old bed will enable large and sufficient ditches to be formed for carrying off the water. The most particular attention must be given to these ditches, as upon them depends the preservation of the road.

All the earth taken from the ditches, side roads, and slopes, not required to make good the grade and side roads, must be thrown down the hill side, and on no account whatever upon the slope of a side hill cutting, from whence it soon washes back into the ditches. The minimum size of the ditches should not be less than three feet wide on top, one foot deep, and one foot wide in the bottom; the whole depth to be below the bed of the road. Rock and peculiar side slopes can alone prevent this being practiced.

The side slopes must be cut to a slope of 45, with berms, as a minimum; and as low as 60 wherever it is practicable.

Wherever earth is required for a filling to make good the side roads, require that it be taken from some near side slope or other point that will improve such part of the road. The minimum side road is to be five feet; wherever the natural ground will permit, cause it to be increased to admit of summer roads, placing the ditches outside of such increased side road.

The second alteration is, to have the whole work done by contract, instead of job work and day labor, as was practiced last year.

To effect this, the greatest precaution is necessary to specify what work has to be done on each chain of four rods of the road, the particular grade for such portion, the depth and size of the ditches, the side roads and slopes, and from whence the required earth is to be taken to restore the grade, and where the surplus earth is to be taken from the ditches, drains, side slopes, &c.

In the delivery of stone for the metal, the contract must provide that the stone be delivered and broken on the side roads in rectangular piles or strings of such dimensions as you require on the several parts of the road, and the measurement made of the cubic contents of the stone thus prepared; from which measurement you will ascertain the number of perches, by previously having a ma.s.s, containing five perches of stone, as it comes from the quarry, as compactly piled as can be without the use of a hammer, taking large and small indiscriminately. Have this ma.s.s broken to the size of four ounces; ascertain the cubic contents of the bulk it shall produce, the fifth part of which you will take as a perch, and the unit of measurement for paying for the number of perches to be delivered.

The metal is to be thrown on the road at such favorable periods as you shall designate, after it has been measured, and not until the contractor has prepared the required quant.i.ty for half a mile at a time.

You will require the contractor to commence the grade at one end of the piece he is to repair, and continue regularly through, not permitting him to seek the parts requiring least work to execute first; and when delivering stone, to commence the delivery at a point giving a mean distance for hauling from the quarry; a mean rate of payment is then equitable, otherwise it would not be.

The work on your section may be divided into two distinct cla.s.ses: the one, where nothing has as yet been done; and the other, the part graded and stone prepared for the metal during the past season.

On the first cla.s.s, you will make contracts to grade, deliver, and put on three perches of limestone where the old bed remains firm, and four perches where the old bed has disappeared, requiring the grade to be finished by the 15th of October; and if the metal is all prepared by that date, to be put on by the 1st of November, the contractor continuing to rake the road, change the travel, and preserve the whole work in order, until the succeeding 1st of April. Should the contractor, however, not be able to prepare the metal to put it on the road by the 1st of November, then he is to preserve the grade of the road in order until the first favorable state of the weather after the 15th of March ensuing, when he is to put on the metal, raking and smoothing the surface for twenty days after the whole metal shall have been put on the road.

You will observe that the contract is to call for preserving the road in either case during the winter; in one case, by adding metal, raking, &c., and in the other, by breaking with a sledge stone to fill the ruts, covering such stone in the spring lightly before putting on the metal.

The second cla.s.s of work is the unfinished part of last year's operations, upon which there will be time to put three and a half additional perches per rod on such parts as were covered last year, and four perches per rod on such as had none, requiring that it be put on by the 1st of November, and be preserved, raked, &c., until the succeeding 1st of April, during the winter filling ruts made by travel with additional metal, to be prepared and ready at convenient points on the road.

For the culverts you will make a contract with one person for all that may be necessary on half your section, and with a second person for the other half, the work to be paid by the perch of twenty-five cubic feet, measured by the plan and dimensions you shall designate for each locality, and according to which plan the work must be constructed. For this work you will require the stone to be of good proportions, with parallel beds and faces, and not smaller than two cubic feet in each piece, in no case ever permitting a stone to be placed "on edge," a very common practice, destructive of good masonry. The covering stone to be of such additional dimensions as you shall judge necessary for each locality. The bottoms of the culverts to be paved or flagged with stone, and such an ap.r.o.n constructed at each end as to guard against the ends being undermined by the pa.s.sage of the water.

The repairs of the masonry of the bridges and walls on Wheeling Hill it is very desirable to effect by contract, if practicable. On Wheeling Hill the object may be effected by requiring the masonry to conform with that already executed, particularly in regard to the size and quality of the stone, paying for it by the perch measured in the wall when finished, reserving the one-fifth of the value from monthly payments as security for the faithful execution of the whole work. The repairs of the bridge may be executed in like manner, specifying the masonry of the bridge now building over Wheeling Creek as the standard, excepting stones placed on edge.

It is desirable to postpone the repair of all masonry to the latest date, excepting only such parts as are necessary to perfect the grade; you will make your contracts accordingly. The masonry of the culverts and some of the bridges must be finished in time, including the filling to make good the roadway, to permit the contractor for grading to comply with his agreement. The usual one-fifth of the value of work done being retained until the expiration of the time for completing the whole work, when this sum is to be applied either to carry into effect the remaining provisions of the agreement, as stipulated to be executed, or paid to the contractor, if the work has been faithfully executed according to the tenor of the agreement.

You will make all your payments by checks drawn on the bank through which I shall make your remittances, taking duplicate receipts for moneys thus paid, attached to a bill giving the quant.i.ty rate, cost, and date of the receipt of the article clearly and distinctly expressed.

Your check book must be added up, and the balance in bank ascertained every Sat.u.r.day evening, which balance must be reported in the weekly reports to be forwarded to me, as required last season.

The balance of your account, as appears by your ledger account with me, must also form an item in the weekly report. The a.s.sistant engineer will make an inspection of these books, and report to me whenever he comes on your section of the road.

The receipted vouchers you will forward to the office at Brownsville, of all payments made during the week at the end of such week, reserving the duplicate until called for by myself or the a.s.sistant engineer.

So soon as you are apprised by me of funds being available you will immediately advertise by hand bills, and through the public prints, that contracts will be made for repairing the section of road under your supervision, and that proposals for executing the work will be received for twenty days from the date of your advertis.e.m.e.nt, for repairing each mile of the road according to stipulations and particular information, to be had on enquiring of you on or after such date as you are enabled to collect it. Let the advertis.e.m.e.nts express that the repairs consist princ.i.p.ally in grading the road over the old bed, cleaning out the ditches and drains, restoring the side roads to their width of five feet and covering the road thus prepared with limestone broken to four ounce pieces, in such quant.i.ties as shall be specified for each rod, varying from two to four perches per rod, and keeping the whole in order until the first of April next, by which date the contracts are to be completed.

To ascertain the work to be done on the different mile sections, and on the particular parts of each mile, you will, the instant funds are available, make a measurement of the road, noting the work to be done on each chain (as specified in the previous parts of this communication) in the most minute detail.

This statement, reduced as much as practicible to a tabular form, you will cause to be printed, as the information to be given to persons upon which to make their proposals, and it will be embodied in or attached to the articles of agreement as a specification of the work to be done.

As you will find it convenient to have the prepared metal piled in uniform ma.s.ses, admitting of the application of a gauge to ascertain whether or not the required quant.i.ty is in the pile, you will cause such gauges to be made with slopes of 45 degrees and in no instance permit a measurement of stone to be made without having previously verified the dimensions of the gauge. The necessity for this you will perceive by reflecting that the end of the gauge may be cut off and the angles altered to make a material difference in the quant.i.ty, without being perceptible to the eye.

The following are some of the frauds heretofore practiced, and now enumerated that you may look cautiously to their not being practiced upon your section of the road: i 1st. Diminishing the size and altering the angle of the gauge.

2d. Loosening the pile of metal just before the measurement, to increase its bulk.

3d. Concealing or covering up in the piles of metal large ma.s.ses of stone or other matter.

4th. Breaking stone of a softer or otherwise inferior quality than the sample agreed upon.

5th. Breaking the metal to a larger size than that agreed upon.

6th. Removing the prepared metal from one point to another after it has been measured.

7th. Taking metal from the face of the road, of the first or second stratum, to make it appear the desired quant.i.ty has been broken to fill the gauge.

8th. On parts of the road where limestone has already been delivered, wagoners, with a partial load, pa.s.sing from the quarries to the point of delivery, have been detected in stealing a piece from several piles, thus making a full load from what has already been paid for.

Very many other frauds have been detected upon receiving and paying for stone perches before breaking. No corrective offers for the many that may be practiced under this system. It is, therefore, in no case, to be adopted. Always measuring the stone after it is broken, and reserving one-fifth of its value until the whole agreement has been fully and faithfully complied with, are the best securities against fraudulent practices.

Immediately after concluding the contracts on your section for the season, you will forward me a statement of the funds required to carry them into effect, and the times such funds will probably be required.

Respectfully, your obedient servant, RICH'D DELAFIELD, Captain of Engineers.

PHILADELPHIA, December 28, 1834.

_Sir:_ The enclosed letter of the 29th May was prepared as the instructions for Lieutenant Vance, conducting the operations on the seventh division of the road, and a copy thereof was forwarded to the officer of each division, with directions to conform thereto on their respective sections, suiting the phraseology to their divisions.

On the 27th June, on being made acquainted with the particulars of the act of Congress making the appropriation for the year's service, the following instructions were communicated to the officers of the several divisions, slightly changed to suit each particular division:

"_Sir:_ Funds having been made available for continuing the repairs of the c.u.mberland Road, east of the Ohio, you will cause the preparatory measures to be taken immediately, and notice given as required by my letter of the 29th of May, a copy of which has been forwarded to you from Brownsville.

"The act of Congress grants a specific sum for finishing the repairs of the road; you will, therefore, in your arrangements, provide for the stone bridges on the new road, and three and a half perches of stone to the rod on the surface of the road as metal; the latter to be furnished by the 31st of December, and kept raked and additional metal put on until the 15th day of February ensuing; the masonry of the bridges to be finished by the 15th of October, with proposals of the terms for finishing the same work by the 30th day of June, 1835.

"The form of a contract has also been forwarded to you from Brownsville, which, with the letter of instructions accompanying it, connected with the tenor of this communication, you will make your guide in the management of the section of road confided to your supervision.