The Old Pike. Thomas B. Searight
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 apron constructed at each end as to guard against the ends being undermined by the passage 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 quantity 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 Saturday 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 assistant 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 assistant 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 advertisement, 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 advertisements express that the repairs consist principally 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 quantities 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 masses, admitting of the application of a gauge to ascertain whether or not the required quantity 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 quantity, 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 masses 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 quantity has been broken to fill the gauge.
8th. On parts of the road where limestone has already been delivered, wagoners, with a partial load, passing 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 Cumberland 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