Report of the Hoosac Tunnel and Troy and Greenfield Railroad, by the Joint Standing Committee of 1866
Text[C.]
Statement of J. W. Brooks, Esq., Chairman of the Commissioners, made to the Committee during the session of the Legislature, 1866
The first Act for loaning the credit of the State to the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company, dated April 5, 1854, provides, besides other conditions, that when seven miles of the road in one or two sections is completed, and 1,000 feet of the tunnel, in one or more sections, sufficient for one or more tracks is completed, then $100,000 of scrip shall be delivered to the company.
The size of the tunnel required by this Act is not definitely stated, nor what proportion of the $100,000 of scrip is loaned on account of the tunnel.
The Act of April 4, 1860, defines the size the tunnel to be 14 feet wide and 18 feet high. If this means excavation and not completed tunnel, then the room required for the ballast and drainage would reduce the height to about 16 feet above the rails; a size absurdly small enough to be regarded as certainly not above the minimum intended by the Act. The same Act provides that $30 per foot shall be allowed on account of heading, and $20 on account of the enlargement, making $50 per foot for the completed tunnel; $50,000 of the first advance may therefore be considered as on account of the first 1,000 feet of completed tunnel, and the remainder, say $50,000, on account of the road which had been then completed west of the tunnel.
The second delivery of scrip was on account of the tunnel, and under the provisions of the' Act of 1859, which provides that $50,000 may be advanced upon the completion of 1,000 feet of heading. The heading was done and $49,777.78 delivered October 4, 1859.
The third delivery of scrip was under the provisions of the same Act, and was on account of grading three miles of road, in detached pieces, near Greenfield. For this, $50,222.22 was delivered January 3, 1860.
The fourth delivery was under the same Act, and for completing the second 1,000 feet of tunnel, for which $30,222.22, was delivered March 1, 1860.
An Act changing the terms of the loan was passed April 4, 1860. Section 2 divides the scrip remaining undelivered, as follows: "No further deliveries of scrip shall be made to said company upon the conditions authorized in former Acts, but the undelivered portions of the loan of two millions of dollars authorized by chapter two hundred and twenty-six of the Acts of eighteen hundred and fifty-four, amounting to one million seven hundred and seventy thousand dollars, shall be divided and apportioned between the railroad and tunnel, and for the construction of each, respectively: 'six hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the completion of the unfinished portion of railroad extending from the eastern terminus of said road near Greenfield, to within half a mile of the eastern end of Hoosac Tunnel."
Section 3 contains the following provisions: "The governor and council shall annually appoint a state engineer for the purpose of examining and determining monthly the amount and value of the work done, and materials delivered on the railroad and tunnel of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company, who shall receive an annual salary of one thousand dollars, payable quarterly. The state engineer shall forthwith fix permanent marks in each end of the Hoosac Tunnel, marking the progress of the work up to February twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and sixty, from which to determine the progress subsequently made. He shall also determine by suitable notes, marks or observations, the amount and value of all grading, bridging, masonry, or other work done, or iron, or other materials delivered on the road east of the Hoosac Tunnel, prior to December twenty-second, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, and fix data from which to determine the value of any work, or materials delivered subsequent to the date last named. He shall monthly, immediately after the first day of each month, estimate the proportion which' the work done upon the road, since the preceding estimate, bears to the whole of the work required to be done in the graduation, masonry, bridging, and superstructure of said railroad east of the Hoosac Tunnel; and also the work done in the excavation of said tunnel, which he shall certify separately to the governor, together with the amount of state scrip to which the company is entitled under the provisions of this Act. Such monthly estimates shall be based upon a width of road-bed at grade of fifteen feet, on embankments, seventeen and a half feet in side cuts, and twenty feet in through cuts; in the heading of the tunnel upon dimensions fourteen feet wide and six feet high in the middle, and in the finished excavation of the tunnel of fourteen feet wide and eighteen feet high in the middle.
"The deliveries of scrip shall be at the rate of fifty dollars for each lineal foot of tunnel, divided between heading and full-sized tunnel, in the proportion of thirty dollars for each lineal foot of heading and twenty dollars per lineal foot for the remaining excavation; and of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the whole of the graduation, masonry, bridging, and superstructure of the unfinished portion of the road east of the tunnel.
"The Scrip shall be delivered on the road in the proportion which the value of the work done and the materials delivered each month bears to the estimated cost of the whole work and materials required on the portion of road aforesaid.
"No expenditures shall be required merely for the purposes of ornament, but the work shall be substantially performed, and the rails shall weigh not less than fifty-six pounds to the lineal yard; for any defective materials or work, a proportionate amount of scrip shall be withheld.
"The governor and council shall have a general supervision of the work, and for that purpose shall visit and inspect the same at least once in each year, and as much oftener as they may deem expedient; and they shall have power to correct abuses, remedy defects, and enforce requirements, by withholding scrip or imposing new requirements in such manner as the interest of the Commonwealth shall in their judgment require."
Under the provisions of this Act scrip to the amount of $455,034.70 has been delivered on account of the railroad and $40,131.95 on account of the tunnel.
State scrip was delivered in sterling up to and including the delivery of March 7, 1861, and afterwards in dollar bonds. In this statement the sterling is changed into dollars, to show it all in one currency, and the pound sterling is reckoned, as by the State treasurer when the deliveries were made, at $4.4444/100.
The certificates for amounts due on account of the railroad or tunnel were for irregular sums, and the scrip delivered was in round amounts; the fractional difference sometimes in excess and sometimes below the amount of the certificates is divided between the tunnel and railroad in proportion to the amount due on account of each.
Stated and divided as above, the scrip which has been delivered on account of the railroad and tunnel, is as follows:—
The amount of State scrip which according to statutes, had been earned by the progress made towards constructing the tunnel before the surrender of the property to the State, may be stated as follows:—
Strictly considered, no portion of the tunnel at the East End was cut to the required size of 14 feet wide and 18 feet high, much of it was less than 12 feet wide, and some of it only about 13 feet high. At the entrance the excavation was so nearly sufficient that only a small amount more was required to bring it to full size, and had all the rest been well done, a not very exacting inspector might have passed 25 feet of this as completed. The remaining 2,964 feet of penetration at this end could form no ground whatever for a claim as completed work.
At the West Shaft the heading had been driven in both directions 561/2 feet.
At the West End the total penetration had been 543 feet. Of this distance 26 feet had been arched with stone—40 feet is in rock, standing without support, and 477 feet is temporarily supported with timbers. Under the assumption that the 40 feet left unsupported is safe enough to be left permanently 80, then 66 feet was completed at this end, giving at all points a total penetration of 3,5881/2 feet, of which, 91 feet was completed.
It is clear that the payment of $50,000, under the Act of April 5, 1854, for 1,000 feet of completed tunnel, was not earned.
Under the Act of 1859, scrip to the amount of $50,000 was to be delivered upon the completion of 1,000 feet of heading, and though the prior conditions of this Act had not been complied with, this amount may fairly be considered as having been earned.
The next payment of $30,222.22 for the completion of the second 1,000 feet of tunnel was clearly not earned.
All subsequent payments were made under the Act of April 4, 1860, providing for the payment of $30 per foot for heading and $20 per foot for the enlargement.
The total amount according to the several Acts is as follows:—
Under the Act of 1859,—
The amount of State scrip which under the statute had been earned by the progress made in constructing the railroad may now be considered.
The first payment of $50,000 under the Act of 1854, should have been for seven miles of completed railroad. The certificate of the engineer, upon which it was paid, gave (see page 82 of House document No. 185 for 1860,) the length of rails laid as upwards of seven miles; nothing in the certificate showed then any part of it was completed road, and upon investigation then made it proved that while most of it was done, a part near the west end of the tunnel "was not ten feet wide," and would cost several thousand dollars to complete it. It is clear that this payment had not then been earned in the manner provided by the statute.
The second payment was on account of the road, under the Act of 1859, for grading three miles of road, "said three miles being all situated within four miles of the point of commencement;" Page 30 of House document No. 185 for 1860 says of this grading, "the continuous line is interrupted by fourteen gaps of cuts and fills;" it is thus made up of fifteen separate pieces, avoiding all but the cheapest part of the work, and costing, as the contractor who did the work certifies, between $8,000 and $9,000. Under, to say the least, a somewhat liberal construction of the Act, $50,000 was said to have been earned by doing this grading.
If proper deductions had been made from the amount earned on account of the unfinished condition of the seven miles west of the tunnel, on which the first $50,000 was paid, and on account of the worthless masonry and bridging which have been reckoned in at full cost, the overpayments would be shown more correctly to exceed in amount the sum of $350,000.