Google Earth 'timeline' now only goes back as far as 2002?

If you go back to the 6/6/2002 imagery, I think they are laying some sort of geotextile under the new taxiway.
37°14'15.97"N 115°48'4.89"W

en.wikipedia.org...

There are way too many types of these fabrics for me to even guess what type they are using. The fabric is expensive, but the base ain't going anywhere. So if the taxiway lasts longer, the extra cost makes sense. When they build developments in hilly areas, you often see berms that are steeper than 2:1. They use layers of geotex sandwiched between dirt to make it possible to do such steep embankments. It pays if you can build more houses in the development.

Originally posted by gariac
You probably missed the image link. I cranked up the contrast a bit more. It looks to me like a landing of some sort, then perhaps stairs to the ground. The solid part doesn't go all the way to the ground. It could be a fire escape or some sort of service access.

No, but I totally misinterpreted your post. Somehow in my foggy brain I read into it that you thought GE had modified the image. Upon rereading I have no idea how I came up with that.

Originally posted by gariac
In more "normal" places (as in not the desert), they put a detention basin to catch the dirt (silt) that is carried off with the water, then there is a drainage path to dump the water into a stream. [By retaining some water before allowing it to flow, it reduces the storm surge.] But in the desert, they just dig the basin and that is that. I assume they figure the water will just evaporate and/or flow into the ground.

I think I get your point. What I see in the image as a "berm" could just as easily be a ditch i.e. drainage path. Top down, 2D image makes it hard to determine. I can't tell looking at the panorama's either, other than that one obvious berm.

reply to post by FosterVS


Even the berm that we know is there doesn't look like much of a bern on Google Earth. The slope is so gradual you don't get much of a shadow.

Regarding the spot near Hangar 18, you can see some brush growing in what appears to be a detention basin, making it more likely it IS a basin. Berms would block water flow, but they can have a berm on the edge if the basin is filled with a drain pipe.

There has to be a bible at Groom on how to hide all the paperwork for construction. For instance, they have to meet union payscale, even if the place doesn't exist, so the union has to see the billing (in theory). The construction has to either show up on Nellis paperwork, or it goes in a black budget. [I suspect if we got the detailed billing on all the paving done by Nellis recently, the material used might exceed the scope of the solicitation.]

www.lazygranch.com...
Page 5 has some lumber store purchases for Groom Lake.

I have more pages of EG&G billing, but they are similarly lacking in any cool secrets, other than some hardware store clerk ended up selling items to a top secret base.

Everything ordinary has to be a just a little bit extraordinary at a secret base.

^ LOL, released only FIFTY (50) years after the purchases were originally made.. Ha! I read something like $2.xx for a purchase from the lumber yard, and thought that might be amusing adjusted decimal points... Lol, nope! It really was for two something dollars!

Classic!

Oh and regarding papertrails... I'm actually working on something regarding that, as we speak. If I come across anything interesting, I'll be sure to post it up.

Meditating on my navel a bit, I am now retracting my statement that Google Earth didn't remove any old imagery. Here is my thought process. When we first saw the new taxiway from Tikaboo, it was a revelation. But you would think we wouldn't have thought it was a big deal if you could see it under construction on Google Earth, which is clearly shown in the 6/6/2002 imagery. Thus there must have been at least one dataset without the new taxiway on Google Earth.