MAINTENANCE OF STREETS

Evening Star, Issue 19794, 18 February 1928, Page 5

MAINTENANCE OF STREETS

sy or mitghell REPORT BY JOINT COMMITTEES The Works and Tramways Committees of the City Council have prepared a report bearing on the following motion by Cr Mitchell; —“ That in future the maintenance of all streets, including the portion at present maintained by the tramways department, be carried out by the works department.” The Joint Committee will report to tho meeting of the City Council on Wednesday as follows: In their report, which will come before the meeting of the. City Council on Wednesday night, the committees state: — “The committees have considered the proposal contained in the reference in all its bearings. The subject divided itself quite naturally into two divisions. “ (a) Whether it is feasible and practicable for the works department to undertake, the responsibility for the actual work of keeping the surface ol that portion of the street occupied by the tracks in repair, while tho tramways department retained the responsibility of attending to tho undersurface of tho tracks, consisting of the replacement of sleepers, bonding, and general aligment of tho rails themselves; and “ (b) Whether any equitable arrangement was necessary or desirable regarding a new basis for the distribution of tho cost of maintenance of the street surface occupied by the track as between the Public Works Department, in its capacity as representing the' local authority and spending the funds of the general account, and the tramways department, in its capacity of the managers of the public uutility and spending the income and revenues ot tho tramway undertaking. “ Tho present practice is to regard the city engineer as primarily responsible for tho condition of the street surlace occupied by the track, and it lies with that officer to call upon the tramways department to make good any defects that come to his notice. It is represented to us that ' all such requests have been promptly met. We are unanimously of opinion that it is not practical to transfer the actual work of maintenance of the surface ot the street to the works department. Such work, we are fully persuaded, can be done more economically and with Jess inconvenience to tho traffic by tho department that is dealing with the nnder-surface work of maintaining the track. Tho best evidence on that point is tho fact that it is found almost impossible to dissect the cost of the track maintenance as between the maintenance of the surface and that of the underground operations. We are therefore strongly of opinion that nothing is to be gained by an alterain the present methods. “ On the subject of the suggestion f hat the tramways department should bo relieved of some portion of the cost of the maintenance of the street surlace occupied by the track, it was represented to us that the great change that has taken place in street traffic during recent years by the more general use of motor vehicles has added very considerably to the cost of street maintenance. That fact is readily conceded, but the argument has at least equal application to tho general cost of this class of work. It is fairly obvious that the very existence of the tram track adds to the difficulty of the efficient maintenance of the street surface, and this applies to portions outside the actual area for which the tramways is responsible in terms ol its statutory obligations, in other words, a street could he maintained not only in a more satisfactory manner, but at very much less cost, were thero no tram tracks in existence. No valid arguments were adduced to us to justify a departure from the statutory provisions, that the tramway undertaking should bear tho cost of maintenance over tho area between tho rails and for 4Sin on each side thoreoi. It was claimed that in certain portions of the tramway route vehicular traffic, was induced to use the street maintained by the tramways from the fact that it was in a better condition than other portions of tho thoroughfare. Any force that such a contention might have will gradually disappear as maintenance of tho city streets overtakes tho new requirements ol modern traffic, and so far as a large part of tho tramway tracks are concerned this condition will be hastened by the provision that will he made available by the city’s share of Gic recently imposed petrol tax, - “ For these reasons wo have no rccominodation to make involving any departure from the present procedure.''