Parking on Brown Street is closed off this morning, so that the street can be scanned be American Engineering Testing, Inc., for voids under the asphalt.

Using a sonar scanner, as pictured below, AET workers are looking for open spaces under the pavement, coming from adjacent businesses, such as old cellars, basement extensions or tunnels. The concern is that such spaces may have been blocked off over the years and current business owners might not be aware of them.

The testing is a preliminary step in the downtown infrastructure project scheduled to begin construction next spring.

Though parking along the entire length of Brown Street is closed, the road itself is not closed off, and traffic will be allowed through during the process.

Workers from AET said the testing should only take a few hours, and parking will be open again by this afternoon.