What’s going on at Acme Brick?

[rezman]

Does anyone know what has been going on by the Acme Brick plant up by Edmond? For months now there has been a daily parade of dump trucks bringing in dirt. I’m talking literally hundreds of loads. So many in fact that they’re actually doing damage to the streets. Much of the fill is being brought in from an excavation sight over by 122 & Penn, and taken through an entrance on Santa Fe, just north of the Kilpatrick. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were filling in the old clay pit, maybe for possible future development? Or is it just because they can’t dig anymore clay out of there, so they’re bringing it in for production?.

[Pete]

Does anyone know what has been going on by the Acme Brick plant up by Edmond? For months now there has been a daily parade of dump trucks bringing in dirt. I’m talking literally hundreds of loads. So many in fact that they’re actually doing damage to the streets. Much of the fill is being brought in from an excavation sight over by 122 & Penn, and taken through an entrance on Santa Fe, just north of the Kilpatrick. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were filling in the old clay pit, maybe for possible future development? Or is it just because they can’t dig anymore clay out of there, so they’re bringing it in for production?.

Yeah, I bet they are just filling in the pits where they strip-mined the clay to make bricks.

And perhaps using that fill dirt to make bricks as well.

[Roger S]

That dirt being taken out at 122nd and Penn is part of a drainage project for Chisholm Creek..... I want to say they are hauling over 1,000,000 CY's of dirt out of there.

[rezman]

I know it’s a lot because they’ve been running a steady stream of trucks since around last spring. I guess what better place to put it than that massive crater.

[Urbanized]

Funny, but I’ve given this topic a lot of thought over the years despite having no information beyond what you can see driving past at 70 mph. My guess is that the crater itself represents the originally-mined clay deposit for that brick-making plant. Also guessing that at some point that deposit played out, or the hole got too deep to continue to mine, whatever.

Since the plant continues to make bricks and since you see trucks in the pit without it appearing to get any deeper, logic would dictate that they are bringing in new clay at this point. Since Oklahoma has lots of clay-rich soil, I would suppose they work with excavating companies to know when a construction or road building project is planned for a clay-rich site, and they buy that soil or haul it off at no charge or some other arrangement favorable to both parties.

All just guesses, but it makes sense. I’m sure they’d rather not move their plant every time they mine out a clay deposit.

[Pete]

I took this 6 days ago.

It's hard to appreciate the amount of dirt being moved here unless you see it in person.

FYI, this will become a city park.

[Urbanized]

Definitely looks like a place where you might find a bunch of clay.

[jn1780]

They have been dumping that dirt anywhere and everywhere they can find. All along Penn and 122nd they have been raising the elevation. A lot of dirt was dumped at Santa fe and memorial by TLC. I was thinking that was something new going in while they were doing that.

[rezman]

Funny, but I’ve given this topic a lot of thought over the years despite having no information beyond what you can see driving past at 70 mph. My guess is that the crater itself represents the originally-mined clay deposit for that brick-making plant. Also guessing that at some point that deposit played out, or the hole got too deep to continue to mine, whatever.

Since the plant continues to make bricks and since you see trucks in the pit without it appearing to get any deeper, logic would dictate that they are bringing in new clay at this point. Since Oklahoma has lots of clay-rich soil, I would suppose they work with excavating companies to know when a construction or road building project is planned for a clay-rich site, and they buy that soil or haul it off at no charge or some other arrangement favorable to both parties.

All just guesses, but it makes sense. I’m sure they’d rather not move their plant every time they mine out a clay deposit.

Indeed it is an old pit that has been there longer than most of us here on OKCTalk. It was there when there was nothing around it but farm land. I bet your logic is right that the pit was probably tapped out. I know it was full of water. We moved our shop over to that area around 2005, and I have seen truck loads being brought in to their Memorial entrance, but never to this extent. They did a curb cut and put in a whole new entrance on Santa Fe for this operation.

There is supposed to be a new development on the corner of Memorial & Santa Fe next to TLC, and the fill is being brought in there to raise the elevation.