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At the Aiken Mine The Septic Cache Near Goffs In the Goat Canyon Tunnels

     A collection of items were left at or near the Aiken Mine, "in the open" (often partly covered in cinders).

 

At the Aiken Mine

 

• A set of concrete culvert and pipe sections, shallowly buried in cinders a few hundred meters from the bunker:

• 288 reinforced concrete cylindrical culvert sections, plus headwalls and endwalls; the basic straight section is 2.4 meters length, 0.92 m internal diameter, 12 cm thick walls, weight 2,480 kg; headwalls weigh 2,000 kg, flared endwalls weigh 2,500 kg. Each section of pipe comes with a rubber gasket (which are stored inside the bunker). A straight section is about 2.5 cubic meters for storage volume purposes.

• 70 mild steel plates, 25mm thick, ten each (for 116 tons total) of:

• 1.5 meter x 2.5 meter, 736 kg
  

• 1.5 meter x 3 meter, 883 kg
  

• 2 meter x 3 meter, 1,178 kg
  

• 2.5 meter x 3 meter, 1,472 kg
  

• 2.5 meter x 4 meter, 1,963 kg
  

• 2.5 meter x 5 meter, 2,453 kg
  

• 2.5 meter x 6 meter, 2,944 kg

• Various vehicles; they have had their wheels removed, along with many small, vulnerable components. The air intakes and exhausts have had sturdy covers placed on them. None of the vehicles had any "anachronistic" technology installed; a mechanic might have wondered why so much equipment in mostly-good condition was left in the desert. Fifth-wheel trailers:
  

• two hydraulic-dump half-round demolition trailers, 68 cubic meter capacity, empty weight 9 tons, max loaded weight 23 tons, 12.2 meters long, 6mm thick mild steel body, eight 11x24.5 tires each
  

• two water tank trailers

• four flatbed trailers

• two lowbed trailers

• two Mack RD800TX 6x6 heavy-duty semi-tractors

• two Caterpillar D7G crawler-tractors - one is a bulldozer fitted with a winch, the other is a side-boom crane
  

• four loader-backhoes

• four front loaders

• two Mack RS688X cement mixer trucks, with all-wheel drive and long double frames; each with a winch, a 567 liter water tank, an 8 cubic meter mixer, and two 1.5 meter long chute extensions. Wheelbase 6.2 meters, overall length (with steerable tag axle down) 10.2 meters. Tires are 65x22.5
  

• Four 3 meter-deep holes dug within a kilometer or so of the bunker (probably existing cinder-mining areas), filled with bulk construction materials about 2 meters deep, and then covered over with plastic and cinders about a meter deep. They are each about 2000 cubic meters, and contain:

• gravel (not cinders)
  

• sand
  

• aggregate (not of volcanic origin)

• drilling-grade bentonite

 

     The actual vehicles and supplies may vary, and the Project warned the team that these items might be damaged or stolen (or used by another team).

 

The Septic Cache

 

     After overcoming misgivings by the security staff, a few of the team E-4 members involved in the bunker construction were able to fill a 7.5 cubic meter concrete septic tank, which was buried a couple hundred meters from the bunker main entrance.

 

Near Goffs

 

     Also known to the team is a cache (so to speak) of pipeline supplies. This is stored in a trench about 60 km east of the E-4 bunker, near the town of Goffs; it's not entirely hidden (there wasn't much soil put on top of it originally), and the locals knew about it in the late 1980s. This cache isn't specifically "assigned" to team E-4.

 

• 8,000 segments of corrosion-resistant steel pipe, 61 cm diameter, 8 meters long, walls 9.5mm thick, weight each 1.7 tons

• valves, plates, tee, curves, and ends for 24" pipe; also near Goffs

 

"Some company dug a trench three-quarters of a mile long, out in the desert,

and dumped a lot of pipe in it a couple of years ago.

It's supposed to be contaminated or something, got cyclone fence all around it,

and hazardous material warning signs."

 

In the Goat Canyon Tunnels

 

     Another storage site is the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway -- specifically the tunnels in Goat Canyon. A Council of Tomorrow subsidiary took over management of the line in the early 1980s, with a promise to repair the railway between Campo and Plaster City (ownership remained with the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System). Over a dozen bridges and 17 tunnels were rebuilt and reinforced, with heavy steel doors at the tunnel ends ("to prevent vandalism"). Before the Atomic War, freight cars were to be placed in the tunnels by the Project and the entrances sealed. The freight cars' contents were to be bulk supplies such as bagged cement -- nothing militaristic. Again, this site isn't specifically assigned to team E-4.