The Reconstruction of Moscow

In surfacing streets the proper construction of drains is of great importance, otherwise rain water remains on the roadways and gradually gashes away the surf ace in- stead of draining off . Dust, mud and stagnant water are as injurious to street surfaces as to people's clothing. It is also important that all operations which involve under- ground work should be carried put before the roadways and sidewalks have been surfuced, so that it will not be necessary to tear them up again. There are great systems of pipes, mains and cables under the streets in big cities: for water, sewage, heating, electricity, N telephones, tele- graph, etc. This vast system of underground installations will be so arranged and planned that all excavation work is completed by the time surfacing of the streets begins. All Moscow's underground installations will be laid in underground collectors. The embankments of the Moscow River, the Obvodny Canal, and the Yauza River are being faced with granite. Before the Revolution only 4.5 kilometres pf the Moscow River embankments were faced with sandstone. At the suggestion of Stalin, the work of facing the embankments was begun in 1933, and proceeded at the following rates: in 1933—2.3 kilometres were faced with granite, in 1934 —4 to 5 kilometres, in 1935—about 10 kilometres. The decision of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U. makes obligat- ory the completion of the work of facing all the embank- ments along the banks of the Moscow River within the city limits in the course of the next three years, from Shelepikha on the northwest to Kozhukhovo on the south- east, viz., for a distance of 46 kilometres on which no work had been done hitherto. In addition 4 kilometres of embankment along the Obvodny Canal and 20 kilometres along, the Yauza, River will be built. '

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