Salt Lake Tribune | 1909-01-03 | Page 34 | Engineering Department of Salt Lake City

14 : . . ; ; I Engineering. Department of Salt Lake City J ' BY GEORGE O. OHANEY. I Tho history of a city is tho history jf her public works. Tbo stability, beauty, and utility of tho public works, when "compared with their cost, is in-tlicativo in-tlicativo ot tho nbility and integrity of the designer and constructor. Tho commencement com-mencement of public improvements of Mi' civilized community must, of force, bo coincident, with tho establishment of such community; but tho development develop-ment of such improvements to point whoro they aro systematica'!!? pursuod is. to h great extent, dependent upon tho accessibility of tho materials, tho cntornriso of tho citizens, and tho omounl of labor and timo necessarily consumed by tho individuals of such community in obtaining a b'nro susto-iinneo; susto-iinneo; "public works" being truly, in a measure, luxuries. An isolated settlement, dovoid of modern traffic facilities, would" bo dependent de-pendent entirely on local materials and labor for her improvements, and in old ' communities that have developed from a "settlement1 ' to a village, from a vil-lago vil-lago to a town, merging by degrees into p. cit3, tho need for systematic public improvement is but slowly Tecognizcd. Community Work. Of a necessity at first, some work is tlono. by community effort, such as tho tepair of roads, construction of drains, tho erection of bridges, and bottorment bf water supply, but until such timo s congestion ot population produces an almost unbearable inconvenienco and discomfort, few communities can bo brought to rocognizo tho necessity of prgnnizod. systematic effort in public work. But in ovory such city, thcro takes place at some time an awakening, and happy tho people whero this nwak-oniug nwak-oniug comes without tho application of tho scourge, in tho form of disenso or fire. Memphis was taught sanitation by tho former, and Chicago, tho necessity neces-sity of water supply uncf building restrictions re-strictions by tho latter. Salt Lake was awakened from her semi-stupor in 1SSD to find her resourced undovolopod nnd her training inadequate. inade-quate. Waterworks had been constructed, con-structed, but without thought of extension exten-sion or increaso; streets were laid out, but under traffic they becamo seas of mud; sidewalks were reserved, but except ex-cept in the dry season they wero iin-J rmssiblo; drains had boon constructed, out their outlot overflowed private property. All public work had been dono by day labor, with a minimum supervision by the untrained head of somo municipal department. Drouth was threatened by inefficiency of tho water supply, hoalth endangered bv innumerable in-numerable cuss pools and earth vaults a holocaust was imminent by reason of inefficiency and lack of applianco in her firo department. Records of the few existing public improvements wero either lost, destroyed, or had never existed. ex-isted. In JS90, whon tho office of city surveyor sur-veyor was abolished by an action of the city council which created tho office of city engineer, A. F. Dorcmus was appointed ap-pointed to tho latfcor office, A man better bet-ter qualified to occupy tho position, especially at that time, Could not have boon found. Familiar from boyhood with tho imperious ncods and customs of tho community, with tho best inter. J ostK of tho city and citizens at heart,' and possessing oxecutivo ability of b high order, our first city engincor laid tho foundation for a department, whica today is unexcelled by tho engineers office of no city of "liko sizo in thai United States. Something About L. 0. Kolsoy. At the timo of tho organization of tho city engineer's office, thoro wan' employed, as second assistant, in chargo of construction work in tho field, a young man who was given chargo of tho street paving and who had goncral supervision sup-ervision of the alignment and grading for sidowalk improvements. This young man was Louis C. Kolsov, tho present city engineer. In the fall of 1S92 IJr. Kolsoy was put in churge of tho location surveys for tho gravity outlet sower, and in tho spring of 181)3 ho was given charge of the construction work, and he remained in entire charge of this work until it was completed, December, 1S05. The cost of tho sowor, exclusive of t ho ' right-of-way was $424,000.83. In tho i spring of 1S96, Mr. Kolsoy was mado t assistant city engineer, having in personal per-sonal chargo all tho work of the offio? and a general supervision of all field ,ul rft'ainod this position until 1901. During tho timo Mr. Kclsoy wao assistant engineer, ho was intimately aa-sociatfd aa-sociatfd with the prosecution of somo ot l.IIo most; important legal proceedings proceed-ings that have over been prosecuted by tho city. Aside from tho regular duties in tho office, ho virtually had chargo i of tho accumulating mid tabulatinr- evi- t ; EAST SIDE RESERVOIR, j f , : J r ..:... H . . V! m&M.. ft I , t Ii. C KELSEY. J J donco obtained for lln various law; suits involving pnvinmifc for construe- ; I tion on j)iibli' utilities. Among the : J most important, suits were those involv- I ing thn pnyrueiil for I lie Parley's canvon ' I conduit, and incidentally nttacking 'l h ' I validity of the contracts issued bv Salt , Lake (.'it v. Mado City Engincor. lu 1901 Mr. Kelso v was appointed ' fjty engineer, and retained thai office I until the spring of 1001. During the j . ears of 1902 and 190S. a moat impur I it n i. improvement in street paving was made, Second South street being paved . I'roni Firpl West street to Sixth West .street, and South Temple boinr paved from Third West street, thus giving the eiM a paved stiver to each of tin-depots, tin-depots, and improving the transport a i tion faei lilies. An innovation way made in tlu construction of thin pavement, . the intersection of the streets b'-ing : pave.d v.ilh asphalt, instead of htone ! blocks, as had hitherto beon the custom I in the city, lu 1900" 31 r. Kclsoy was reappointed as city engineer and as-Mimed as-Mimed tho duties on January 9, lOOfl. During the year .1900 the extension of ' Uio gravity outlet was pushed to com- j plot ion. Tho work on the fifteen-inch vitrified sewor on Eighth West and 1 Ninth North street was commenced. It was, however, necessary for a coni-plolo coni-plolo revision of tho plans for the intercepting in-tercepting sowor system to be made, and for tnis reason work on tho intercepting intercept-ing sower wns susponded and not commenced com-menced until about tho middle of December. De-cember. Notwithstanding the suspension" suspen-sion" of this work, the construction work for 90(i reached the magnificent total of $S(5,-J77.92,. or almost twico tho amount; of work done in any other ono year since tho first establishment of tho city engineer's office. Big Cottonwood Conduit. During tho season of 1907 tho work on tho Big Cottonwood conduit wns r completed, and the reservoir at tho head of Parley's canyon conduit lined with concreto. and the work on tho intercepting in-tercepting sower and pumping station practically completed, only a small amount of concruto work being loft unllnished on account of cold wcathor. Tho total amount, of construction work for 1907 reached the enormous total of $l,207,100.-iS. In tho spring of tho present year tho construction of the pumping plant for tho intercepting sewor wns begun, and -a contract was entered into for the building of the outlet pipe. The pumping plant is virtually completed, and it is to bo hoped that the outlot pipo will bo in proper condition for acceptance in tho near future. Under tho ordinance which created tho offlco tho city ongineer .makes it his duty to prepare the plans and specifications for all public improvements, and givo him general .supervision of all contract and other work, and directs that; hn : j ahnll see that it is performed in a workmanlike manner. That tho offlco is not u sinecure, whero the duties aro properly performed, is evident from the following statement: The amount of public improvemontn mado since tho establishment of tho city onginccr?3 office in 1S90 to dato aggregates $5,750,301.44, of which during tho last, tbroo years thcro has beon constructed public improvements amounting to $2,0S0.46G 73, or an amount equal almost to 52 per cout of all tho public work constructed under the supervision bf tho city engineer's en-gineer's office. Tho work done under the supervision of this office, baa -included almost ovory class of construction construc-tion that would ordinarily bo mot with in tho engineering profession, and has as a rulo been handled by tho ordinary ordi-nary office force. Caring for tho Records. Notwithstanding tho broad basis pn which the original plan was made, tho accumulation of varied field notes, plats, and other records was too great for tho original method of filing. In tho spring of 1900, whon tho prosont engineer took charge, it was found that tho methods of filinrr and indexing index-ing was entirely too cumborsomo to I enable the handling and finding of plats nnd records with reasonable dis I patch. Valuable records woro buried in a mass of accumulated papers with no index whatever, and oven whoro indexing had been attempted, tho consultation con-sultation of several books with various va-rious systems of index was. nocosaary before all the papers bearing on a subject could bo traced. Tho problem of an efficient and practical prac-tical method of filing the public records rec-ords tins been so well solved sinco then as to attract favorable attention, not only of the new and incxporiencod officials connected with municipal work, but inquiries regarding the system aro received from old cities of the east and south, as well aa from thoso in several parts of the British possessions. posses-sions. Tho standard ongineoring papers of tho United States have, not only seen fit to compliment the engineer engi-neer on tho simplicity nnd efficiency of tho filing and indexing, but havo exploited the samo as a standard rneth- ':Wfc od to be used for such records. . , Tho average costs for engineering mSy work on tho public improvements dur- ..JffR-' ing the last threo years has shown n(-Hr mnterial roduction in tho expense ot , m. i this work. Tho percentage- of cost ot j Hfr engineering on pnblic improvements 1 mgl for tho seven years onding December 31, 1907, is as follows: j ij)0l 4.89 per onnt i WKl: lony' 2.04 per cent ' HPb lfl03 4'98 Pcr ccnl ' W& lon.j"" 8.G2 por cent i:B I'JOo "'" I " 8,85 Por cent ' HtV xiiot! " .3 3'-,s nor ccnt Buk- ll)()7 2.65 per cont K. . Tho avorago porcentago amount of Jfj & ongineoring for 1908 is- not at this iL ' timo available, but it is not probabjtf JJB that it will exceed tho avorago of tho last two years. Tho reduction in i this expenso is not mado by caroless- 1 B ncss of work or suporvision, hut it in I fB tho outgrowth of a systematic on-dcavor on-dcavor ou tho part of tno hertd of tho - department to obtain faithful and of . : iicicnt services from each employee of 1 tho department during tho regular It working hours. Promptness : and . dill- ; , genco is required from each individual Wm employee. To do justice to tho various &WM& employees, this is, as a geuoral rule, : ! rendered with cheerfulness and intor- ' : BE est, each individual- betraying a cor- ; 9K tain pride in being a member of a com j HJ potent and efficient . working forco. ' HE It should be especially noted that the BB personal supervision by tho present en- ; H ginecr has at no timo been nominal or in any wa3' superficial, for during the entire time of his. iucumbcncj", not- ' IK withstanding tbo enormous amount of HP work under construction, there was no ' Hfp timo when ho "was unable to state not HS only tho amount of worJc that was done ' ) HYa to. date, but was uwaro of the char ' IBB actcr and finish of even tho details of . Hf tho work, and as to tho conformity v K or noncomformity of auj- part to the 5 HM fipecilicationg. : CITY GARBAGE STATION.