Brick by Brick: Seattle Paves Pike Street

Four bids for the paving of Pike Street from the east line of Front to the west line of Seventh were opened at the regular weekly meeting of the board of public works yesterday afternoon. The board's chambers were crowded when Secretary Meacham opened the bids. After they had been examined the three commissioners and City Engineer Thomson held a short conference, then announced that the board would act on the bids at 10 o'clock this morning. The reason for deferring action was that at least two of the bids may be found irregular.

The city, in calling for the bids, did not specify any particular brick, but simply required that the quality be first-class. Two of the bidders, Spurr Co. and Stirratt & Getz, bid on Denny clay brick and Seattle Brick and Tile Company brick, raising the question of regularity.

The four bids were: T. W. Prosch Co., $25,640.14; J. W. Fits, $22,402.15; James Spurr Co., with Denny brick, $21,936.50, and with Seattle Brick and Tile Company's brick, $19,916; Stirratt & Getz, with Denny brick, $23,742.55, and with Seattle Brick and Tile Company brick, $21,048.55.

The city engineer estimated that the improvement will cost about $25,000, of which $20,000 will be paid by property owners and $5,000 by the city. Spurr Co. put in the only bid agreeing to accept bonds in payment; the others required that the bonds be sold and the money in the treasury before work commences.

Should the board decide that bidding on two kinds of brick does not constitute an irregularity, the contract will likely be awarded to Spurr Co., whose bid is lowest. In that event work would commence at once and be pushed with all possible speed, for the reason that labor can at present be secured very cheap, and because it will be greatly to the contractors' advantage to hasten the work during the summer months and escape the rainy season.

Under the franchises granted them the street railway companies — the Front Street cable line and the Seattle Consolidated — must pave between the tracks and one foot on either side when the city work begins. The street is forty-six feet wide from curb to curb. General traffic will not be interrupted; the contractor is required not to blockade the sidewalks, and the work will proceed on one side at a time, leaving the other free. The bricks will be laid in rows across the roadway, with stone and concrete sub-foundation and drainage basins connected to the street sewer.