THE STREET PAVEMENTS OF KANSAS CITY. 489 



principal streets being sixty feet wide. A general law of the city makes the road- 

 way three-fifths of the total width. 



Street railroad tracks are usually of four feet gauge, laid four and one-half 

 feet apart. The lines are as a rule, double track on business streets. 



The rock found in and about the city is a common Hmestone — most of it 

 very soft; there are, however, some ledges of hard blue limestone, and one of 

 dark flint-rock. At Argentine, about four miles out of town, and at Edwards- 

 ville, are found considerable deposits of limestone in ledges, varying in quality 

 from soft calcareous to firm granular rock containing a large percentage of silica. 



The work of paving the streets of Kansas City may be said to have begun, 

 properly speaking, in the spring of 1882. At that date there were ninety-three 

 miles of streets within the corporate limits of the city, of which fifteen miles had 

 been Macadamized, the remainder being simply dirt roads. This work was done 

 at intervals during the preceding ten or fifteen years under substantially the Tel- 

 ford-MacAdam specifications, and consisted of a layer of stones eight inches 

 deep roughly set on edge, with four inches of stones broken to two and one-half 

 inches diameter spread on top. The sub-grade was not rolled or compacted in 

 any way. The larger stones used were very irregular in size and shape, and 

 were not carefully placed. The top layer was put on in one course without roll- 

 ing or binding in any way, and the quality of the stone used was generally of the 

 more accessible and softer kind. 



This class of work was mainly confined to the principal thoroughfares and is 

 very unsatisfactory in its results. The stone wears away rapidly under the heavy 

 street traffic, or becomes pounded down into the soft clay underneath, so that in 

 dry weather the surface is very rough and uneven, and in wet weather the streets 

 are almost impassable. Repairs have consisted of simply dumping wagon loads 

 of broken stones into the worst holes and ruts and leaving it to be compacted 

 by the travel on the street. 



The first cost of this kind of street improvement was about fifty-seven cents 

 per square yard. The cost to the city at large every year has averaged, I esti- 

 mate, $1,000 per mile, although, probably, on some of the main traffic streets, 

 the cost has been much above the average. Correct figures are not obtainable. 



The stone for repairs is furnished without first cost, and the breaking is done 

 by the work-house prisoners at a nominal expense. 



In the spring of 1882 all of the principal streets were in very bad condition. 

 The first contract for paving any street otherwise than by Macadamizing was let 

 February, 1880, and included that part of Fifth Street between Broadway and 

 Bluff Street. The specifications called for Medina (N. Y.) sandstone, cut after 

 the Belgian form, six to seven inches deep, laid on a six inch bed of coarse sand, 

 and with the joints between the blocks filled with asphalt paving cement. The cost 

 was $3.50 per square yard. The work was not, however, completed until Jan- 

 uary, 1883. Meanwhile the second contract had been let, in February, 1882, 

 for paving that portion of Wyandotte Street between Fifth Street and Ninth Street 

 with round white cedar blocks, six inches long, set on one-inch boards, bedded 



