I wonder

[Mezrein503]

I've been wondering something... When they do work on an area, lets say they renovate an old park, strip the top 8" off, then put in fill dirt and resod, what do they do with all the stuff they stripped off? I know some of it gets sold off as more fill dirt, but it occured to me. In order to sell it off as fill dirt, it has to be mostly free of all matter other than dirt, and sometimes stone. So what happens to all the coins and jewelery that may be in that fill dirt? Do they just melt it all down for scrap?

I was also wondering if anyone could help me locate a website for Washington County in Oregon that has a detailed project list of all construction that is going to be occuring throughout the up coming years.

Anyway, thought I'd throw that out there.
HH all!

 

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[watercolor]

When they shave off the park's topsoil, they usually want to get rid of it as easily as possible. . . which in most cases, means dumping it in low-lying areas that need fill; And they don't care what kind of "trash" it may contain.

Look at this is a golden opportunity. . . most all the trash (pop-tabs, can-slaw, etc.) have now been removed. . . leaving you with the "goodies".

Two months ago they did this in a Chicago suburb park. . . in five hours of hunting, eight of us pulled out Large cents (6), two silver 3-centers, a two-center, several half-dimes and IH's & Barbers.

Hit that place know!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Get ahold of the January 2008 Western and Eastern Treasures mag. I did an article on just the topic you're referring too. An inner-city park, dating back to the 1880s-ish, was scraped to make way for incoming astroturf. In the article, I tell how we found out that it was an upcoming project (instead of just ..... randomly happen-chancing onto old-town demolition sites). In addition to the method I talk about in the article, another way is to see if there is anything called a "Builders Exchange" up in your state. That's what we have down here, and it's a clearing house for all public work's bids. There's a little more into how to access their stuff........... but that's for another post

As to where the dirt goes when it's off-hauled, it can go just about anywhere. Often times, contractors are needing fill-dirt in other locations, so there is constant in-house info-exchanges between them, where one person needs dirt for a project, while another might be trying to get rid of dirt. The best way to find out, at any particular project you're looking at, is to follow the trucks. Or simply show up with a 12-pack while the transfer trucks are there idling, waiting to be loaded up, and ask him "where you guys taking this?" Either way works. Heck, you don't even need a 12-pack. Because ....... afterall ...... your "uncle Bob might be needing some fill dirt at his farm outside of town, so you're just asking, for future use" ......... right?? I've seen dirt goes to just about all sorts of other places: for dike fill at river banks, as top fill for abandoned quarries, to cover old excavations where they had to scrape out out contaminated soil, and just a bunch of different things. If it does go to city or county dumps, and is clean-fill, it's often put in a special section (and not simply mixed with garbage) to be used as top fill, when they need it. When this happens, ....... well durn how that disc blade came off the tractor, and you need to scan the piles to see if you can find it