Summer construction season is an interesting time of year for so many reasons. For one, when you dig a hole in the ground, you will never be quite sure what you're going to find. For example, there is a redevelopment project underway at the corner of Mitchell Road and Highway 5 here in Eden Prairie. It's the former site of the City's Police Department. The development is called the Lone Oak Center.
The other day, the excavating contractor was moving dirt around at the project site when, much to his surprise, he uncovered this below ground swimming pool! He wondered to us, the immediate former owners of the site, just what kind of Police Department building used to be on that site.
Well, before there was a Police Department on the site, there was a private home. And that private home had a private pool. And when the private owners sold the site, instead of taking out the pool, they just filled it in. Probably not an unusual decision to make, based on their expectation of what the land would be used for in the future.
So the contractor will break up the pool and remove it. It'll be a little "muss & fuss," but not too much.
This example, though, is a good opportunity to consider that we don't always know what's under the ground we're walking on, or digging up. Before you build a deck, or plant a tree, or put any major hole in the ground, please call Gopher State One Call at 1-800-252-1166. Gopher State One Call is the centralized service in Minnesota to locate underground utilities and hazards – before you encounter them by accident when you're digging around in your yard. The GSOC center will let local utilities know that you are planning to dig a hole and dispatch them to the proposed site of the hole to let you know if there is anything to avoid underground.
You may not uncover a buried below-ground swimming pool in your back yard, but you really can save your own life by calling Gopher State One Call before you dig.
