The Curse of Oak Island: Cofferdam Construction Begins (Season 6) | History

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Great excitement on.
NARRATOR: Or: It is a scene of great anticipation.
Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton welcome representatives from Brycon Construction and Irving Equipment.
They have come to make preparations for what is to be the most ambitious and technologically advanced operation ever attempted in the 223-year history of the Oak Island treasure hunt.

MIKE: How are you doing?

NARRATOR: The installation of a 25-foot deep metal cofferdam at Smith’s Cove, designed to block off the coast. When completed, the enclosed area will be drained and excavated in an effort to find the elusive flood tunnels, and to the Oak Island Money Pit, and perhaps a direct route.

But before construction can begin, a new access road and platform must be built to allow for the massive equipment, including a 300-ton crane, to be transported down to the beach.

MIKE: The biggest item that…
That crane is…
will have to be moved.
And then, of course, we’ll have to track it.
So we have to seriously reconfigure the plan,
from 10X down to 5X.
And by serious, I mean quite serious.

MIKE: Once this process gets underway, what’s your timing?
GARY: We’re thinking it’s probably a week and a half.
Aside from that, you guys got your march.
And anything wrong we can do, you let us know.

MIKE: Fair enough?
GARY: Yep.
MIKE: That’s no problem.
All right, gentlemen.
Good luck.

NARRATOR: With the need to complete the beach work, brothers Rick and Marty Lagina are finally ready to break ground on this summer’s most ambitious and eagerly anticipated project: the excavation of Smith’s Cove.

Today, the team from Irving Equipment Ltd. has begun delivering heavy machines and equipment that will be needed to construct a massive steel cofferdam.

TRUCK HORN: They’re here.
RICK: Well, here we go.
Pretty remarkable, isn’t it, David?

NARRATOR: Over the next few days, the team will assemble the crane at the Money Pit, nearby, where, before it can be set, tons of earth have been moved to build a perfectly flat work surface.

And in a couple of weeks, that will be put to use.
RICK: Yep.
And roughly two, three weeks from now, we’ll be down at target.
MARTY: It’s cool.

RICK: Just think how long it took your father.
We didn’t have the technology then.
MARTY: Exactly.

NARRATOR: Once the crane is in place, construction can finally begin on the nearly 200-foot-long watertight barrier. When it is completed, ocean water will be drained, and then the entire area—nearly 12,000 square feet—will be excavated.

This will allow the team to uncover more of the mysterious and important artifacts discovered at Smith’s Cove last year, but also possible evidence of an ancient flood tunnel.

RICK: Because of the find of the cross,
we have to do a very dry, disciplined,
archaeologically-driven excavation
in order to see if there are other similar artifacts.

MARTY: We’ve always thought there may be a treasure of information in Smith’s Cove.
At the end of this exercise, we’re going to know more about Smith’s Cove than has ever been known.
It’s a big operation.
It’s scary in a sense.
It’s daunting, and it’s…

RICK: There’s a story here…
MARTY: Yeah.
For me, the question is really to find out
what happened here long ago.
And I hope that the answers are down there.
RICK: I do too.