The portable asphalt plant purchased under the appropriation for repairs of streets, avenues, and alleys for the fiscal year 1913, may be operated under the immediate direction of the Mayor of the District of Columbia in doing such work of resurfacing and repairs to asphalt pavements, in the repair of macadam streets by constructing on such macadam streets and asphalt macadam wearing surface and in the construction of asphaltic macadam surfaces on concrete base, as in his judgment may be economically performed by the use of said plant; provided, that at no time shall more work of resurfacing and repairs be done with the portable asphalt plant than can be accomplished with the single portable plant owned on March 4, 1913, by the District of Columbia.

(Mar. 4, 1913, 37 Stat. 948, ch. 150.)

1981 Ed., § 7-623.

1973 Ed., § 7-618.

This section originated at a time when local government powers were delegated to a Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia (see Acts Relating to the Establishment of the District of Columbia and its Various Forms of Governmental Organization in Volume 1). Section 401 of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967 (see Reorganization Plans in Volume 1) transferred all of the functions of the Board of Commissioners under this section to a single Commissioner. The District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, 87 Stat. 818, § 711 ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.11), abolished the District of Columbia Council and the Office of Commissioner of the District of Columbia. These branches of government were replaced by the Council of the District of Columbia and the Office of Mayor of the District of Columbia, respectively. Accordingly, and also pursuant to § 714(a) of such Act ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.14(a)), appropriate changes in terminology were made in this section.