I went over to a nearby bike shop to get a quote for my damaged bike (ask if you’re interested), and I had some time to kill while I was waiting for the manager, so I wandered over to a nearby dead-end street. Parked there was this very odd machine (which I took photos of, now that my cell phone has been fixed):
The only hints I can provide is that this machine is parked next to a marshy area, and a 40 food deep hole in the pavement with a pump pumping water out of the hole. Perhaps the machine is a mud processor/filterer/cleaner of some sort?
 “Mud Cleaner?” |
 The Rear |
There are more photos of the machine & the hole in my Cell Phone Pics gallery. Can you guess what this machine does? I can’t. If so, post a comment!
It is a “horizontal directional driller” (HDD) for making holes for pipes without digging a trench. I knew these existed but hadn’t seen such a big one. Basically the large-scale equivalent of digging a hole under a sidewalk by washing away soil with a pipe on the end of a hose, which I have done.
A few people here in Park Hills had their electrical, phone and cable service entrances undergounded using HDD so as to not disturb their precious landscaping. Rumors are that this didn’t work out as well as hoped.
See http://www.triflo.com/tfi6000.html for the manufacturer’s not very informative web page.