CHAPTER X 

 THE PARK ENGINEERING DIVISION 



Park engineering is concerned primarily with problems involved in the 

 selection and construction of parks. Some of the problems involved in the 

 selection and development of park properties have been discussed in Chapters 

 II, III and IV; and the general functions of the engineering division of a 

 park department have been touched on in Chapter VIII, page 517. Engi- 

 neering problems involved in general lighting and sanitation have been 

 discussed in the chapters devoted to those subjects respectively. The 

 subject matter of the present chapter will be chiefly confined to a considera- 

 tion of the organization and conduct of the engineering division of a park 

 department. 



FUNCTIONS OF ENGINEERING DIVISION 



At the risk of repetition it is considered desirable at this point to give 

 a resume of the functions of an engineering division. William T. Lyle, in 

 his excellent work on "Parks and Park Engineering," page 17 (published by 

 John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1916), gives the following summary 

 of the work of an engineering division of a park department: 



(a) "Property surveys of lands to be acquired with the accompanying 

 searches in the office of the recorder of deeds, and the preparation of prop- 

 erty descriptions to be incorporated in deeds of conveyance prepared by 

 the counsel or his assistants. 



(b) Topographical surveys prepared for the use of the landscape archi- 

 tect in the preparation of his plans. 



(c) Designs of sewer, drainage, water supply and lighting systems, 

 together with the design of all essential engineering features of walls and 

 bridges and roadways. 



(d) The preparation, letting and supervision of all contracts for con- 

 struction work. This includes the direction in detail of all construction 

 operations. 



(e) Planting and gardening operations. 



(/) The maintenance of the work until it can be turned over to a 

 superintendent's department, which need not be organized until the work 

 is well under way or even completed. 



(g) The policing of all acquired areas." 



In this summary of the functions of the engineering division it is 

 obvious that Mr. Lyle had in mind the functions of the engineering divi- 

 sion or department in the preliminary stages or years of the development 

 of a park system. This is the period or time when the engineering division 



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