Ep. 9 Duke St. Drilling

First off, thank goodness the skies opened up last night and the Forest City received its first real rain shower in several weeks time. Much needed, much wanted, goodbye humidity for the time being!

On this misty moisty morning, myself and Mia received information on new work taking place at the "site at the end of Duke Street". This site whose owner I will leave un-named for the time being has been in the process of remediation (basically meaning, environmental recovery) following the take down of the industrial property that once stood there. Over the past few weeks we have seen a few trucks, personnel and survey crews but no evidence of major work being done during summer 2011. This morning however was quite to the contrary.

Upon arriving at the site the noise of generators and machinery was very indicative of the fact that something new was taking place. Multiple work sites on the property were visible from beyond the barbed wire and fenced perimeter with the sound of generators humming and whirring outside trucks and trailers filling the air around the site.

It was very difficult to tell exactly what was going on and one could only speculate based on equipment that we could see from a distance. So after snapping a few photos Mia and I returned back the the FOTC office to make sense of what it was exactly that we saw.  

Photo: C Jones

So here is 1 of the 2 lil beauties we saw running around today. The second of which was farther back onto the property which we were not privileged to enter. My initial speculation on the purpose of the machinery was that it was a drilling rig of some description. Following my return to the office and a few minutes searching through local drilling and geotechnical equipment sites and companies I came across what seems to be a match for this particular unit. To be clear I am no expert in geologic engineering.

What I discovered was that these units are or are similar to a 66 Series Geoprobe drilling rig. See one in action

The purpose of these rigs still remains somewhat of a mystery. The history of the site which was once the location of a paint and coatings factory makes me think that they are taking soil and/or water samples for testing. If we get to see the results anytime soon is the next question.

Although the purpose of these machines is still undetermined it is good to see that something of real substance is taking place at the "site at the end of Duke street" and it is no longer merely just under survey.