The Crumbling Promise of Kennewick's Paving
A Walla Walla contractor inspects Kennewick’s failing street improvements and suggests a costly fix to save the city's new oil macadam.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A tiny ray of light peeped through the gloom which has hung in chunks around Kennewick’s official family, when H. L. Wilson, of Walla Walla, inspected the city streets and declared 'all is not lost.' Mr. Wilson is the builder of the oil macadam which was laid on Second Street between Pacific and Washington streets three years ago. He was brought here by the city council to tell them what might be done to make the newly improved streets like the one he built. By sweeping the macadam clean, leveling it up where it has rutted, applying more oil and sand and rolling it, the new improvement can be made as good as the old one. The cost of this additional work will run the cost up to about 10 cents per square yard more than the cost of the old street. This Mr. Wilson says, is no more than the improvement should have cost had his method of building been followed from the start because of the increased cost of labor and materials.
“A tiny ray of light—the first in months—peeped through the gloom which has hung in chunks around Kennewick’s official family.”
Public infrastructure failures and the high cost of maintenance are perennial headaches for city councils. Kennewick’s 1917 struggle with 'oil macadam' surfaces echoes modern debates over street bonding and municipal road quality.
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