Big Drainage Canal

Chicago, March 15.- Bids on contract work worth $2,000,000 will be advertised for immediately by the drainage board and the emergeney clause wlll be used to do the work on the big ditch so that ït will be comjjleted during the summer of 1899. Thia exceeds the most sanguine expectations and is made possible alone by the success of the battle against the Joliet, Hls., "hold-ups" and the unexpected attitude of compromise taken by the Illinois and Michigan canal board. Henceforth armies of men will be at work day and night along the unflnished part of the drainage canal route, and work which' has been delayed by litgiation or by other entanglements for more than a year will be Irosecuted with all possible dispatch. Extraordinary means are now being employed by the engineering department to force preliminary work froro the tail-race to the upper basin. Must Be Done at Once. The work must be done at once ■because of the precipitation of floods or other physical disturbances at certain seasons of the year. The maximum length of time in which Chief Engineer Randolph says the canal can be fin[shed through Joliet is fifteen months. But this is admittedly an excessive estimate, and if the work is not done in eleven months it will be due to some unforeseen contingency. The cost of construction through Joliet is estimated at $1,760,000. From Lockport to Joliet the work is practically finished, so that the work through Joliet remains to be done to open the big ditch and carry away the sewage in the Chicago river. Attorney Hayes of the drainage board has received information from the Joliet representatives of the board, Halel & O'Donnell, that the Joliet property owners involved in the recent condemnation case before Judge Hilscher have yielded to the decisión and will make no fight or appeal. Work Yet To Be Done. The work remaining to be done and uncontracted for is given as follows by Chief Enginner Randolph: Tail-race. Lockport, $90,000; from tail-race to upper basin, $150,000; construetion and right of way, Joliet, $1.760,000; movable bridges for railroads and highways, $1,153,724; Chicago river improvement, $386,000; total work yet to be contracted for, $3.539,724. By Dec. 1 Engineer Randolph expects to have completed all vork of movable bridges, highways and railway crossings. All work outside of the construction of the canal route through Joliet will be well out of the way by the time the Joliet end is finished, so that it all depends now upon the length of time it will take to push the canal through Joliet. Owing to the fear that the canal commission would make a vigorous fight in the courts and that the Joliet condemnation cases would be indefinitely prolonged on account of the bribery and other charges, it was stated that the canal could not be finished until the next century had been ushered in. Three Forera of WorKmen. Three separate forces of ivorkmen will be employed along the unfinished part of the canal. For more than a year not a spadeful of earth or rock has been excavated, -nhile the engineering forces were constrained to remain idle upon this portion of the work. The preliminary work will begin in a few days, and as quickly as possible the forces will be increased. The amount required by the engineering department to finish the canal is $4,987,590.96. The legislature at the last regular session provided for a levy of a lV2-mill tax for the drainage board, which applies to the present year and 1899. After next year the drainage board will have to fall back upon the V2-mill tax for its revenues. Although some questions of retiring maturing bonds and settling interest remain to be answered, there is money enough to bring all the engineering work to a conclusión.