Getting ready for the big pole

This morning there were several trucks tying up traffic at the corner of Cullen and Clark. One of them, not pictured, was a city truck trimming branches, probably to get ready for the utility line that will run along Cullen to Merritt. I could not quite make out what the other two were doing.

A view from a different angle was more revealing. NG Gilbert, the contractor for the utility line, had brought in bigger equipment from another contractor to bore a huge hole. The drill bit that you see on the truck to the left in the above picture is what they use for the tall poles that they have been installing along Merritt. It was dwarfed by the drill bit of the other truck.

Below you can see the workers pulling up the drill bit. They move it away from the hole and then spin it to remove the clay that they are taking out of the hole. I helped my son do something very similar a few months ago, but with a two-man post-hole driller.

A city worker who is a neighbor of mine said that tomorrow they are scheduled to set an 85-foot tall fiberglass utility tower with the footings that they are preparing today.