National Grid has kicked off a pilot study in Gowanus, Brooklyn, which will help the utility company spruce up the 5.8-acre tract along the Gowanus Canal.

Bound by Smith, Huntington and Fifth streets and the Gowanus Canal, the five-week project will consist of timber pile extraction and sheet pile driving, according to information posted by National Grid. The air, noise and vibration will be monitored and evaluated during the process, the utility company said.

The information gleaned from the tests will be used to design the site’s cleanup plan, as well as efforts at the former Metropolitan and Fulton Manufactured Gas Plant sites.

In 2010, the canal as a whole was designated a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The site was home to the former Citizens Gas Light Company’s 12th Ward Gas Work Plant, which turned coal and petroleum into flammable gas. A black viscous coal tar, a by-product of the process, then seeped into the ground as deep as 150 feet, according to local blog Pardon Me For Asking. [Pardon Me For Asking] — Julie Strickland