The Municipal and Sanitary Engineer's Handbook

by H. Percy Boulnois

The excavation is to be filled in within six inches of the surface of the ground, with layers of earth not more than six inches in thickness, carefully rammed or punned with iron punners of not less weight than 10 lbs.

The surface of a roadway must be brought up to its proper level with the surface material kept separate, and properly broken or other approved road metal, and the roadway where broken shall be kept in repair by the person opening the ground for a period of twelve months after the completion of the work.

If the excavation is made under a footpath or paved road, the paving must be made good and kept in repair for a similar period.

3.—A. B. C., the present borough surveyor, and his successors in office, or the person for the time being acting as or discharging the duties of borough surveyor, are hereby appointed as the person or persons to superintend the making of such communications with the public sewers as aforesaid.

(1.) Notwithstanding the stringency of the above regulations it is very difficult to ensure that the whole of the new drain is properly executed by the person who is carrying out the work, for if he wishes to deceive the surveyor’s department it is not very difficult to do so in works of this description. It would be far better if all drains of dwelling houses could be constructed solely by the staff of the local authority, and failing any general act upon the subject, that they should be able to obtain private powers to do so.

It is illegal for anyone to touch the surface of either roadway or footpath for any purpose whatever[209] without the consent of the urban authority (see 38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, sec. 149), and especially to touch or interfere with the main sewers. All such work could be done better and cheaper, both for the ratepayers and the owners of property, if carried out by the trained staff of the local authority; nothing would be gained by scamping the work, and one of the worst stumbling blocks in the interests of sanitation would be removed by this simple and effective measure. Gas and water companies invariably refuse to allow anyone to interfere with their mains or services, but execute the work with their own men; how much more important is it that house drains and sewers should be equally protected. If a gas or water main or house service leaks through defective work it is quickly detected and remedied; not so with a drain or sewer, the deadly gases may be oozing through defective joints or the foul liquid may be poisoning the soil under the adjacent dwelling houses, and many victims may suffer before the cause is ascertained, and even then laborious legal machinery has to be put in force before it can be rectified.

The only objections that can be raised to the plan I so strongly advocate are, first, the interference with the trade connections and interests of builders and others; and secondly, the responsibility incurred by the local authority to execute thoroughly sound and good work, and the difficulty they might afterwards experience if it was necessary to find fault with their own work. The first objection should really have no weight when lives are at stake, and the responsibility incurred by the second objection ought not to be shirked.

Until some alteration is made in the present law the town surveyor must be as vigilant as he can, and endeavour to induce the public to look more closely themselves into such all-important points.

(2.) The next duty of the town surveyor is to inspect all drains of new buildings that are being constructed in his district.

I have dealt with this subject in the chapter on “[New Buildings].” The model bye-laws to which I have there referred contain some excellent principles in reference to this matter, and too much power cannot be given to a local authority in respect of house drains, even to the extent of prohibiting any one else to construct them. The main sewer, shared in common as it is by all the inhabitants of a town, must be looked upon as a common danger, and each house that connects with it should so far as possible be severed from it; at the same time the drain must be so constructed that the sewage reaches the sewer as quickly and as completely as possible, without any nuisance or knowledge of the unpleasant nature of its contents or those in the sewer reaching the inhabitants of the house: this is the key-note of all house drainage, and many excellent books and descriptions of this class of work have been from time to time written.