Mobile Facility Arrives Safe and Sound in Point Reyes

Published: 16 February 2005

Safe and sound at Point Reyes, the ARM Mobile Facility instrumentation is set up on the roof of a shelter until a fence is installed to keep out the curious local cattle. ARM file photo.

On February 9, the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) withstood an accident on the way to its deployment location at Point Reyes, California. About an hour from its destination, the truck carrying the two AMF shelters packed with instrumentation and associated equipment swerved to avoid another vehicle and slid off the road and down a steep embankment. Emergency personnel soon arrived to assess the scene and reported no injuries. With the help of a crane operator, the truck and trailer were soon righted and the shelters moved back into place.

Following delivery to the deployment site the following morning, the instruments and computer systems were setup and checked for operational impacts. After careful evaluation, ARM’s Chief Engineer and AMF operations staff estimated a total of $1,100 damage (out of the $850K shipment), mainly due to an external air conditioning unit on one of the shelters. This amount of damage could easily have occurred in a routine shipment. The robust design of the demilitarized military-specification tactical shelters proved their worth in this event. Other than a few minor “battle scars,” they not only withstood structural damage from the skid down the embankment, but also protected the instruments and computers (which were insulated in thermoplastic foam-lined boxes) expertly packed inside.