THE PARK ENGINEERING DIVISION 627 



Where the volume of construction work is large enough to warrant 

 a park department's equipping itself to carry on construction projects by 

 day labor, a fundamental requisite of success is absolute freedom to select 

 and discharge its employees at will. Political influence which causes the 

 employment and retention of inefficient men is sure to cause the loss of all 

 the gains that a department might make over the contract system in quality 

 of work and in saving the profit of the contractor. A few park departments 

 maintain a construction division or department which takes under its juris- 

 diction all minor construction work which ordinarily would fall under the 

 jurisdiction of a maintenance division. This method enables the holding 

 together of at least the skeleton of a construction organization which can 

 easily be augmented when large projects arise. While many park depart- 

 ments favor the day labor system of performing park engineering projects, 

 on the whole, any form of park engineering which requires a large labor 

 force and the use of elaborate equipment can best be done under the contract 

 method. 



5. When a park governing authority has decided on the contract 

 method the contract may be let either under the lump-sum system or the 

 unit system. Under the former system one bid only is asked for the entire 

 project and the contract is let to a single contractor. Under this system 

 the estimates must be very exact and the amount of work to be done should 

 be fully and accurately known beforehand. Definiteness in such cases 

 forestalls the possibility of difficulty with the contractor over extras. This 

 is a desirable system of handling a project if the project is comparatively 

 simple in its elements and does not involve construction features requiring 

 different kinds of technical skills. 



Under the unit system the project is divided into units; for example, 

 in the case of the construction of a building bids might be asked for general 

 construction, heating and ventilating, plumbing, electrical work, or in the 

 case of the development of a given area of ground bids may be asked for 

 grading, excavations, sewers, cast iron, roadways, etc., or in the case of the 

 construction of a group of park buildings bids may be asked for general 

 construction, electric wiring and lighting fixtures, plumbing, sewers, water 

 supply and gas fitting, marble work and terrazzo floors, roofing and sheet 

 metal work, steam heating installation and equipment, and heat insulating. 

 Under this system an individual bid is asked for each element of the project. 

 This system is more elastic than the lump-sum system and it is not so 

 absolutely necessary for the engineer to be as accurate and complete in his 

 estimates beforehand. 



6. Advertisement. When the park governing authority is ready to 

 ask bids for a given piece of construction work an advertisement is inserted 



