Elusive Laterals

Elusive Laterals

Some years ago Albany, N. Y., installed a water works system and elaborate maps were drawn out showing not only how they ran, but also the exact location of the laterals which were installed at the same time. These, it was taken for granted, had been duly laid—certainly they had been paid for by the city, and the trouble that has since arisen was caused not by any default on the part of the municipal authorities, but by the impossibility of finding the laterals when wanted to connect with an hotel which needed a supply of water. Workmen had ripped up the newly laid pavement on Pawling avenue and had dug down to a depth of 8 feet at a point designated on the map, but nothing in the shape of a lateral could he found. They dug for 29 feet in each direction hut to no purpose, and the authorities came to the conclusion cither that the laterlas had “thawed and resolved themselves into a dew”—“a do” would have been the more appropriate term—or that a bunco game had been played on the citv either hv the contractor who laid the mains and should also have laid the laterals but failed to do so. or that the citv officials who passed on the job had taken it for granted that the work had been properly performed. and had rested content with that belief. A third supposition has been hazarded that the non-performance of the contract had been winked at. From whatever standnoint the matter is looked at there undoubtedly was culpable, if not criminal negligence on the part of some person or persons.

Some years ago Albany, N. Y., installed a water works system and elaborate maps were drawn out showing not only how they ran, but also the exact location of the laterals which were installed at the same time. These, it was taken for granted, had been duly laid—certainly they had been paid for by the city, and the trouble that has since arisen was caused not by any default on the part of the municipal authorities, but by the impossibility of finding the laterals when wanted to connect with an hotel which needed a supply of water. Workmen had ripped up the newly laid pavement on Pawling avenue and had dug down to a depth of 8 feet at a point designated on the map, but nothing in the shape of a lateral could he found. They dug for 29 feet in each direction hut to no purpose, and the authorities came to the conclusion cither that the laterlas had “thawed and resolved themselves into a dew”—“a do” would have been the more appropriate term—or that a bunco game had been played on the citv either hv the contractor who laid the mains and should also have laid the laterals but failed to do so. or that the citv officials who passed on the job had taken it for granted that the work had been properly performed. and had rested content with that belief. A third supposition has been hazarded that the non-performance of the contract had been winked at. From whatever standnoint the matter is looked at there undoubtedly was culpable, if not criminal negligence on the part of some person or persons.