or brick pavements the entire work shall be inspected, and any defects caused by inferior material or defective work, or settlements from any cause, shall be immediately repaired on the written order of the City Engineer and to his satisfaction.

Should the Contractor for any kind of pavement fail to make the necessary repairs within six days after being served with the above order, or to perform the work in a satisfactory manner, the City Engineer shall have the same done and charge the cost thereof to the reserve fund held for that purpose. After all repairs have been satisfactorily made, the City Engineer will issue his certificate to that effect.

(35) Payments.-When the amount of the contract is more than $5000, on or about the first day of each month a payment will be made to the Contractor of eighty per cent of the value of the work performed during the previous month upon the issuance of the certificate of the City Engineer;-provided that no partial payment will be made after the expiration of the time for the completion of the contract.

When the work has been entirely completed, and such completion certified to by the City Engineer, the entire amount due under the contract shall be paid to the Contractor less any payments previously made and any amounts rightly retained under the provisions of these specifications.

On all work guaranteed for five years ten per cent of the amount of the contract price shall be retained till the end of the guarantee period; but the contractor will be allowed to deposit city bonds with the financial agent of the city to the amount of the reserve due, when the entire balance will be paid. During the guarantee period he will be allowed to draw all interest due upon the bonds, and upon the final acceptance of the work, and the Engineer's certificate to that effect, the entire amount will be returned to the Contractor, less any amount paid out for repairs.

On work guaranteed for twelve months a sum of ten cents per square yard for granite on sand, and fifteen cents for stone or brick pavements on concrete, shall be retained until the final acceptance, when the said retained sum, less any amount expended for necessary repairs, will be paid.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF STREET-CAR TRACKS IN PAVED STREEIS AND

ROADWAYS.

THE problem of how to construct street-car tracks in the best manner in paved streets has been troubling engineers in charge of pavement construction for many years. In the early days of street-railways, when the streets were paved with cobblestones and when street-cars were small and drawn by horses at a speed of five or six miles an hour, this question was not so important. But in the present time of asphalt and other improved pavements, of rubber tires, bicycles and automobiles, and with cars weighing from 10 to 12 tons propelled by electricity along our streets at a speed of from eight to fifteen miles per hour, the importance of good and smooth track-construction, both to the general public and to the street-car company, can hardly be overestimated.

There is no doubt that the street-car track is detrimental to any pavement, but it is a necessary evil, for it is well recognized at the present time that no one thing tends to develop and build up a city as does a good system of street-cars.

The problem of the construction of street-car tracks is very different from that of the ordinary steam-railways. The steamcars run on their own right of way, making stops only at long intervals, and the tracks can be constructed in such a manner as will give the best results as regards economy of construction and maintenance, with no regard for the wishes of others, except at street or road crossings.

Street-cars, however, run through public highways which are being used constantly by vehicles, and crossed often by pedestrians, and their construction must be such as will not only accommodate

their own cars, but also interfere as little as possible with the ordinary vehicular traffic of the street.

It must be remembered, however, in this connection that there are two travelling publics, the one in the cars and the other using private vehicles, and while the former uses the vehicles of the corporations, operated in a public thoroughfare, any action which tends to discommode or interfere unnecessarily with the action of the cars must discommode to a great extent a very large proportion of the travelling public. Probably 40 per cent of all the business men in the average American city of more than 100,000 inhabitants depend more or less upon the street-cars for their convenience every day.

The authorities of street-railways, and the cities in which they are operated, generally differ considerably in their ideas of what is the proper construction for the tracks. The street-car companies are interested only to perform their work economically. A construction that will allow their rolling-stock to be operated with the least amount of wear and tear and will cost the least for original construction, as well as maintenance, is what they desire. On the other hand, the city authorities are not interested to any great extent, either in the cost of construction or maintenance. They wish a construction that can be carried out with little obstruction to the general travel of the street, will require but little interference with the pavement for maintenance and repairs, and present little obstruction to the general traffic.

In early track-construction the railway companies sometimes sought to lay a rail that would be very obstructive to travel. When a track is such that vehicles seek it in preference to the street, the operation of the street-cars is interfered with, and the companies seek every means to prevent this.

With the rough stone pavements of twenty-five years ago, the special form of the rail added very little to the general roughness of the street, but railway companies must recognize at the present time that smooth and improved pavements have come to stay, and that they must adopt a method of track construction that will conform to these pavements.

The ideal construction seems to be one in which the track is a part of the pavement itself, and not a separate and definite part

of the work, and the track and pavement should be studied together as one whole. The time of probable renewal of each part should be taken into consideration, and the design of each made so as best to accommodate these renewals. This, however, is not very often practicable, from the fact that it very seldom happens that a pavement and a railway-track are constructed at the same time, so that certain modifications or concessions can be agreed upon and the best results for both obtained.

The question should be taken up by the railway and city authorities conjointly, as if both were owned and were to be operated by one interest; and after the details which would be best under this arrangement were determined upon, general modifications could be made if desired, so that the interest of either party I would not suffer.

Street-railway companies, having operated in public highways for so long a time, with an inexpensive construction determined upon by themselves, find it very hard at times to meet the requirements of modern pavements and the present city officials, but they soon find that it is better economy as well as better policy to adopt a construction that will be both durable and satisfactory to the municipal authorities.

The question as to the proper remuneration to be made to municipalities for the use of its highways for the operation of street-cars has never been definitely settled. In some cities it is arrived at by the company's paying a certain amount to the city, sometimes based upon its receipts, the number of passengers carried, or sometimes a lump sum determined upon in advance.

In some cities, also, the cost of paving is settled in much the same way; but, as a rule, the actual amount of the street to be cared for by the railway company is defined either in its charter or by special legislation. No attempt will be made in this connection to treat the question of value from the franchise standpoint, but simply with reference to the care of the pavement.

In 1854 an Act was passed by the Massachusetts Legislature incorporating the Dorchester Avenue Railway Co. and requiring it to keep in repair the whole of the bed of any road in the town of Dorchester in which it might lay tracks. In the following year, however, this Act was amended by a repeal of this clause and the

substitution of a provision requiring only that part of the road occupied by the tracks to be kept in repair, and defining that portion "to be the space between the rails and so much on each side thereof as shall be within a perpendicular let fall from the extreme width of any car or carriage used thereon, being the space from which public travel is excluded during the passing of said car or carriage."

In Baltimore, Md., the street-car companies pave and keep in repair the space between their tracks, and 2 feet on each side.

In Buffalo, N. Y., different conditions exist in regard to the paving requirements by the different companies, but in general the maintenance of the street between the tracks and 2 feet outside is required.

Although in some locations no paving at all is required from the street-car companies, in New York a bill was passed in 1895 which provided that one-fourth of the cost of repaving any street in Brooklyn in which was operated a street-railway should be assessed against the company owning such track. A great many streets were paved under this law, but at the present time no tax has been collected from the street-car companies. This question, however, will probably be settled by a general New York statute which will be referred to later on.

In Chicago, Ill., the conditions under which the companies now operate require that they pave and maintain 16 feet in width of the street in case of double tracks and 8 feet in the case of single tracks, with a pavement of as good quality as that of the rest of the street.

In Detroit, Mich., the railway company pays no special tax on the gross earnings, is required to do no paving either between its tracks or other part of the street in which they are located, is not required to make pavement repairs if the streets are disturbed for railroad repair work, and the concrete base on which its tracks are laid is put down by the city.

In Indianapolis, Ind., a readjustment of the terms of the original franchise was made in 1878, when a provision requiring the road to repave between its tracks was changed so as to read "repair between its tracks." On account of this action there is considerable feeling between the taxpayers and the railway company.