Chinese home means Mass. ditch project not routine

SALEM, Mass. (AP) -- Turns out a routine ditch digging in Salem isn't routine at all.

The job at the Peabody Essex Museum involves laying underground utility cables near Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old house that was transported piece-by-piece from rural China and rebuilt at the Salem museum. The 16-room house was home to eight generations of a Chinese family.

Visitors enter the house from inside the museum, but its exterior sits beside a narrow Salem street. The Salem News reported that to protect the delicate exterior, the museum is putting a barrier of plywood, backed by insulation, between the work and the house. The museum has also asked the contractor to forego heavy machinery and dig the ditch by hand.

The painstaking project is expected to be completed by March.