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Street Tearout. Neat buckle

Diggerjonny

Elite Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2016
Messages
1,183
Location
Cass county Indiana
City is still taking out sidewalks , I’ve found some cool stuff here last year. Spent 29 minutes here. Found this neat piece. Says Patent Nov.1st 1870. On the back say Boston.
 

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Cool find. My town is actually planning a complete street tearout in the spring. All the streets were bring with asphalt over top. They are going all the way down to dirt before they pave again. Can't wait to see what people dropped through those brings 200 years ago.
 
Cool find. My town is actually planning a complete street tearout in the spring. All the streets were bring with asphalt over top. They are going all the way down to dirt before they pave again. Can't wait to see what people dropped through those brings 200 years ago.

Be aware that even though what you see (after the asphalt is ripped or grinded off the top) might LOOK like native soil, yet it's likely fill dirt decomposed granite layer. Ie.: The compaction base that was put there, 40 or 50 yrs. ago (whenever the asphalt streets first installed). Streets that have to support the weight of heavy vehicles are not simply laid right-on-top of native dirt, when they were engineered and designed. Instead there is a layer of this compaction bed fill material, and THEN the asphalt is laid on top of that.

And the looks of that lower level/layer can be deceiving. To the casual observer, it might *look* like native dirt. But if you are very versed in what your area's native dirt should look like , and what this D.G. layer material looks like, you can spot the difference.

I work in the street sweeper industry, that is involved in a lot of road construction (tearouts & re-paving). So I am very familiar with this.

And it is not very often that they EVER need to rip out the prior generation's DG layer. Because it's only the surface that has the potholes, the cracks, etc.... And no need to "re-invent the wheel" for the sub-base layer. No need to add expense. So they nearly always only ever grind down to the DG, and not lower to *true* native soil. I've seen only one or two old-town district exceptions to this rule. Where, yes, got some coins in a street demo. But for all the rest, it's as I say : Not what we're looking for.

Sidewalk demo's are different though. Since they only carry the weight of pedestrians, then they do not need this extensive compaction layer under the concrete. Thus old town sidewalks were often laid RIGHT ON TOP of the original native dirt or wood walks. With zero preparation or fill base. Or an inch of sand at most. But asphalt and streets are a different beast.
 
That is some good info
Makes sense.
Sidewalk demo's are different though. Since they only carry the weight of pedestrians, then they do not need this extensive compaction layer under the concrete. Thus old town sidewalks were often laid RIGHT ON TOP of the original native dirt or wood walks. With zero preparation or fill base. Or an inch of sand at most. But asphalt and streets are a different beast.
 
Yep keep at it' Few years ago the city tore up the main street and the sidewalks. I was out there every night after the work crews left. I found a lot of old coins, a civil war uniform button, and a lot of other old artifacts. And for what Tom stated they actually dug the main street deep to install a new sewer system. It was there I found a few old artifacts. But the best finds came from where the sidewalks were. Good luck and keep on keepin on.
 
And it is not very often that they EVER need to rip out the prior generation's DG layer. Because it's only the surface that has the potholes, the cracks, etc.... And no need to "re-invent the wheel" for the sub-base layer. No need to add expense. So they nearly always only ever grind down to the DG, and not lower to *true* native soil. I've seen only one or two old-town district exceptions to this rule. Where, yes, got some coins in a street demo. But for all the rest, it's as I say : Not what we're looking for.
Boy do I know that well.

A street tear out in the oldest part of our downtown. I walked in with visions of walking out with all sorts of treasure. In reality, I walked out 5 minutes later. That stuff is like concrete!
 
..... And for what Tom stated they actually dug the main street deep to install a new sewer system. It was there I found a few old artifacts. ...

If all they do is pipeline trenching, then yes, that would, of course, go down into native soil. HOWEVER : if that is an EXISTING pipe they are working on, then go figure : That was a trench *already back-filled in*, back whenever the pipe was first installed. So if that re-fill dirt was fill dirt, then it *could* be sterile. Just depends on whether they back filled with native vs clean fill, at the time.

And regardless : Trenching spoils are never gonna be as good as a uniform scrape. Since go figure : Our "sweet zone" of target concentration (fumble fingers losses) are the top few inches (or the top foot or whatever) of any given location. Right ? So if the trench they're digging is 6 ft. deep (for example), then by mere definition, that means that 1/6 of your spoils will be sterile. And also : If those trench piles are in "piles" (as opposed to being spread out), then : It's a hassle to detect on a pile. By mere definition, you are only scanning the exterior 6 or 8" of said pile. And all that's further in, is out of your reach . Unless they spread the piles out. Which is rarely ever the case, since they probably intend to use the same dirt to back fill said-trenches.

The two times I've seen asphalt scraped out to BELOW the old DG fill layer (in a uniform entire-site fashion) was when they need to do "lime treatment". This is where it's been determined that the subsurface layer is soft, or compromised, etc... So they add some chemical lime powder junk, or some such process, to the native soil. Then start over with a NEW D.G. layer.

But this is very rare. 99% of the time, when you see the asphalt milling grinding machine taking out the top 6" or whatever, it has only ever gone down to the DG layer. And that DG layer might look like dirt, to the un-trained eye.
 
Be aware that even though what you see (after the asphalt is ripped or grinded off the top) might LOOK like native soil, yet it's likely fill dirt decomposed granite layer. Ie.: The compaction base that was put there, 40 or 50 yrs. ago (whenever the asphalt streets first installed). Streets that have to support the weight of heavy vehicles are not simply laid right-on-top of native dirt, when they were engineered and designed. Instead there is a layer of this compaction bed fill material, and THEN the asphalt is laid on top of that.

And the looks of that lower level/layer can be deceiving. To the casual observer, it might *look* like native dirt. But if you are very versed in what your area's native dirt should look like , and what this D.G. layer material looks like, you can spot the difference.

I work in the street sweeper industry, that is involved in a lot of road construction (tearouts & re-paving). So I am very familiar with this.

And it is not very often that they EVER need to rip out the prior generation's DG layer. Because it's only the surface that has the potholes, the cracks, etc.... And no need to "re-invent the wheel" for the sub-base layer. No need to add expense. So they nearly always only ever grind down to the DG, and not lower to *true* native soil. I've seen only one or two old-town district exceptions to this rule. Where, yes, got some coins in a street demo. But for all the rest, it's as I say : Not what we're looking for.

Sidewalk demo's are different though. Since they only carry the weight of pedestrians, then they do not need this extensive compaction layer under the concrete. Thus old town sidewalks were often laid RIGHT ON TOP of the original native dirt or wood walks. With zero preparation or fill base. Or an inch of sand at most. But asphalt and streets are a different beast.
So true Tom, I ran into fill issue on parts of this tear out this summer. Sidewalks were a dream come true
 
Yep you're right Tom. They moved so much sand (that's all we have up here) that I only hunted in the sand that was not disturbed all that much. The line they installed was not in the same old trench. It was offset by six feet. The main thing for me was the sidewalks. That is where the goodies were.
 
That's a unique buckle design (and it even has a patent date)! Any idea what type of item it was originally attached to?
 
That's a unique buckle design (and it even has a patent date)! Any idea what type of item it was originally attached to?
Not sure what it came off of. I’m guessing clothing articles of some sort., I’ve been looking at different photos online to see. I did a reverse image search, it brought up an old listing from E-bay. Listed for 50 dollars. Thanks for the interest. Happy Hunting
 
Street tear outs vary for sure. Was a lot of brick streets that were replaced and working on them i eyeballed some coins. A newer street tear out they regraded 8 inches deeper and detected some of that and got about 10 1860-1930 coins. The most frustrating tear out was and old 1920 concrete street that was a wagon track at one time. Lots of ash piles along the sides with old bottles. But they removed about 6 inches of prime dirt and sent it out on trucks faster then i could get at it. It was used for fill all over and i never got to detect it but did find some bottles while at one dump site.
 
No need to overthink tearouts down to a science, simply get out there when you can while you can and see what you can find. I have done extremely well on tearouts and am always on the lookout for them, regardless of which layer they may or may not peal down to.
 
Street tear outs vary for sure. Was a lot of brick streets that were replaced and working on them i eyeballed some coins.....

Re.: "brick streets" : My earlier rant was about asphalt streets, and/or : In the era of automobiles.

But yes, in the era of foot traffic and prior to steam shovels and heavy equipment, then sure : Older brick streets (east coast of the USA) would/could be laid right on top of native dirt. Thus yes, that would be the exception to my rant. My rant is about the milling/grinding machines you see, that take out asphalt (to prepare for a new incoming layer). In THOSE cases, then be assured : It's nearly always DG fill underneath.
 
Around here grinding s to prepare the surface of old blacktop, temporary fix. DG = Desturbed ground i take it? Anyway another good construction site is gas line installation especially when they do whole blocks. Lot of bell holes at the curb line and they pile dirt up from them to be removed. Back fill with crushed lime or sand. They are doing rural towns around here almost every year. Missed a good one last year 3 miles away:roll:
 
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