A wireless telecommunications project was sited within the Fort Hancock and Sandy Hook Proving Ground Historic District and National Historic Landmark within the National Park Service (NPS) Gateway National Recreational Area in Middletown, Monmouth County, New Jersey. E2PM was retained to provide several cultural resource and environmental services for a new wireless collocations facility on an existing water tank.
The project consisted of the installation of wireless telecommunications antennas and supporting infrastructure at the circa 1910 water tank, located atop the surviving fort bastion. Sandy Hook is significant in American history as a site that has played dual roles in United States military history.
Due to being a historical landmark, this project included Archaeological Phase IA/B Services; Architectural Visual Effects Investigation; National Park Service and U.S. Coast Guard Consultation and Prehistoric and historic artifact identification. All cultural resource services were conducted by E2PM in compliance with the FCC’s responsibilities under the National Register of Historic Places Act of 1966, Section 106. Over the course of many years, project plan revisions occurred, and two separate subsurface surveys were performed.
E2PM conducted several excavations and shovel test pits, surveying and resurveying activities and recovered over 228 historic/modern artifacts, with a majority being fill/disturbed strata. All recovered artifacts were curated and processed according to NPS standards and procedures. E2PM’s field efforts identified fill deposits associated with the past in-filling of defensive trenches formerly located at the base of the Fort Hancock Bastion. No intact archaeological deposits were encountered, and the project resulted in a finding of No Adverse Effect.
In additional to Archaeological services, E2PM also conducted several Due Diligence (Phase I ESA) activities, asbestos and lead investigations and unexploded ordinance (UXO) oversight.
