300 Alamo Plaza
San Antonio, TX 78205
Open today 9 a.m to 5:30 p.m
Starting this week, borescope drilling into the walls of the Church will begin. Drilling will occur both inside the structure, and on the exterior of the walls.
The holes that will be drilled into the walls will be 1-inch in diameter. This will allow a bore scope, equipped with a camera, to go inside the walls to gain insight into the condition of the stones, and to help determine how big the voids hidden within are.
“By running the borescope camera through the walls, we will learn more about the interior of the walls than we could with infrared imaging,” Alamo Conservator Pam Rosser said. “Sometimes infrared imaging, also called thermography, provides readings that do not make it clear whether a void is a void, or a high level of salts. With these cameras will get a much more accurate assessment of the wall from within,” Rosser added.
Drilling will only go through mortar, and will not go through stones. This process will last several weeks, and will provide invaluable data on how the historic structures should be preserved going forward.
