A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN

KILBOGIE MANSE

THE RABBI AS CONFESSOR

THE FEAR OF GOD

THE WOUNDS OF A FRIEND

LIGHT AT EVENTIDE

own that soft earth existed below the grade of the tops of the tunnel under the passenger station building of the Long Island Railroad on the east side of Front Street, and that earth of varying character would be met in places beyond the station building under the railroad tracks in the passenger yard and the street car tracks in Borden Avenue, it had been decided, before proposals were invited, to extend the metal lining eastward to East Avenue, at the east end of the work embraced in the original contract, where the rising tunnel grades approached the surface of the ground so closely that their further extension would be in open cut. In places where the tunnels were wholly in rock, the weight of the cast-iron tunnel lining was reduced 43%; where the surface of the rock was below the top of the tunnel, but above the axis, the reduction of weight was somewhat less, about 25%; notwithstanding these savings, the cost of the tunnels was probably increased by the use of the cast-iron lining; on the other hand, when passing through bad ground, a section of tunnel could be made absolutely safe more quickly by erecting the lining as soon as a length of a few feet of tunnel was ready; under a crowded passenger yard, this feature had great value.

The execution of the work under this contract will be described fully by the Resident Engineers.

The plant assembled by the contractors is believed to be the most extensive ever placed on a single piece of work, and will be described in detail by their Managing Engineer, Henry Japp, M. Am. Soc. C.E.

For convenience in receiving materials to be used in construction, and to facilitate the disposal of excavated materials, one pier was leased on the east side of the Hudson River, two on the west side of the East River and three on the east side. Excavated materials from the station, the cross-town tunnels, and the river tunnels, were placed on barges furnished by Mr. Henry Steers under several contracts embracing also the disposal of the materials. In the earlier part of the work, they were used as fill in the freight terminal of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Greenville on the west side of the Upper Bay; when the fill at this place was completed, the materials were sent to the tunnel company's yard on the Passaic, at Harrison, N.J., and a small part to the embankment in the Meadows Division. On account of the occasional closing of the Passaic by ice, this involved the possibility of, and to some extent resulted in, interruptions to the work of excavation. The contract for the cross-town tunnels carried an option in favor of the company to require the contractor for those tunnels to dispose of materials at a stated price, and in the latter part of 1907, when the excavation in these tunnels was being pushed rapidly, the railroad company, unwilling to incur the responsibility for delays during the winter, availed itself of this option. The disposal of materials was an important part of the work, and will be dealt with more fully by the Resident Engineers.

At the time the contract was made with S. Pearson and Son, Incorporated, it had not been determined whether mechanical ventilation would be provided for the tunnels, and therefore the contract with that firm did not include the final concrete lining at the shafts, above the inverts of the tunnels. After the adoption of plans for mechanical ventilation, in the latter part of 1908, the plans for lining the shafts with concrete, including flues for conducting air to the tunnels, and stairways for ingress and egress, were completed, and the work was placed under contract; it will be described in detail by F.M. Green, Assoc. M. Am. Soc. C.E.

At the east end of the work under the Pearson contract, the rising grade of the tunnels brought them so near the surface of the ground that their extension eastward could be carried out more readily in open cut than by tunneling. The locations of the portals could be varied somewhat, and they were built on rock which was found in rather narrow ridges at convenient places. Tunnels B and D have a common portal; Tunnels A and C have separate ones, the portal for Tunnel C being located about 800 ft, west of the others as a result of its crossing over Tunnel B, as already explained. Eastward from the portals, the track system expands, in order to provide connections with the tracks of the Long Island Railroad to and from Long Island City, with the New York Connecting Railroad and New England lines, and with the storage and cleaning yard known as the Sunnyside Yard extending to the west side of Woodside Avenue, 2-3/4 miles east of the East River. (Plate XV.) The yard and approaches are designed to avoid grade crossings by opposing trains. The various general features of the yard and tunnel approaches, bridge crossings, and street closings, have been described in sufficient detail by General Raymond in the introductory paper.

For convenience in placing the work under contract, a line was drawn 10 ft. west of Thomson Avenue, dividing the work east of that embraced in the Pearson contract into two parts. The work west of the line was placed under the immediate direction of George C. Clarke, M. Am. Soc. C.E., as Resident Engineer, with Naughton Company and Arthur McMullen, Contractors; Mr. Louis H. Barker was Resident Engineer of the part east of the dividing line, with the Degnon Realty and Terminal Improvement Company as the principal contractors. The substructures of the several bridges in or across the yard were included in these contracts, but the superstructures were carried out by various bridge companies, and other minor features were executed by other contractors. More complete descriptions of the plans and of the execution of the work will be given by the Resident Engineers.