Laserfiche WebLink
I' <br />• <br />markedly after the Indiana General Assembly's passage in the same year of a <br />requirement that all brick pavements be installed over concrete foundation. <br />Annual brick street construction in 1908 and 1909 fell to an eighth of what <br />it had been in the preceding years of the decade. By 1910, the cost of asphalt <br />pavement had lowered to $4.45; $1.18 per yard less than brick paving.(15) <br />W.S. Moore disputed the necessity of the requirement for concrete <br />foundations under brick street paving in his 1911 Report of the City Engineer, <br />observing that it was leading to property owners in new subdivisions to opt <br />for macadam pavements "which in no sense should be considered a permanent <br />improvement". He felt that the existing pavements on gravel foundations had <br />proven effective. Noting a loophole in the statute, he requested the city <br />attorney to pursue a method whereby property owners might petition for <br />differing specifications. He also pled the case for incurring additional <br />initial cost for material of superior longevity.. -He seems to have felt that <br />brick laid over gravel gave the best cost/benefit ratio. <br />Notwithstanding this impediment to economical installation of permanent <br />paving, the .length of streets in the city increased by 369 from 1905 to 1911 <br />(figure 2). At this time, 30% of the city's streets were paved, 23% of them <br />with brick. 1912 marked the true high water mark of brick paving in South <br />Bend, being the last year that the yardage of brick pavement laid exceeded all <br />other pavement types combined. (16) This year, was also a watershed in the <br />prevailing attitude toward streets marked by the city's commissioning of <br />George Kessler to prepare a park and boulevard plan for South Bend. <br />(15), City of South Bend Annual Report 1924, Report of the City Civil <br />Engineer, table <br />(16) -City of South Bend Annual Report. 1924 <br />page 6 <br />