One Huge Explosion!

AndyC · December 13, 2007, 12:00:35 PM

Had a blast at work yesterday, literally. Some folks from the Ministry of Transportation were giving me a tour of the new highway under construction in our area. I've been following the construction for a while now, writing occasional updates, etc.

At this point, they're mostly blasting through rock, digging out muskeg (a sort of boggy mass of decaying organic matter and soil) and layering the rubble into the excavation. They already cleared the entire strip of trees last year.

Granite, forest and muskeg describes a good part of the landscape around here, with the bedrock very close to the surface, often protruding in places. So, putting a road through a hill requires a lot of dynamite (actually an ammonium nitrate concoction).

We just happened to arrive at the largest rock cut in the project, just as they were getting ready to set off 37 tonnes of explosive. This threw granite boulders up in the air like popcorn and reduced the whole hillside to rubble they could haul away in big Terex dump trucks.

Fortunately, I had my video camera along, just in case. You can see the big bang at http://www.almaguinregion.com. Just scroll down and you'll see the link.

Scott · December 18, 2007, 04:06:55 PM

AndyC, went to the site and could only hear the explosion

odinn7 · December 18, 2007, 04:53:28 PM

It worked for me....that was sweet!

Torgo · December 18, 2007, 10:49:20 PM

STUFF BLOWED UP REAL GOOD!

CheezeFlixz · December 18, 2007, 11:01:58 PM

Quote from: Scott on December 18, 2007, 04:06:55 PM
AndyC, went to the site and could only hear the explosion

Ditto, must not work in Firefox.

Torgo · December 18, 2007, 11:41:33 PM

Quote from: CheezeFlixz on December 18, 2007, 11:01:58 PM
Quote from: Scott on December 18, 2007, 04:06:55 PM
AndyC, went to the site and could only hear the explosion

Ditto, must not work in Firefox.

The initial link didn't work but I clicked on the link that appeared again in the right side bar I believe and it pulled up new window in which the video played fine.

AndyC · December 19, 2007, 11:25:59 AM

I had the same problem with the video in Firefox. Updated the Flash plug-in and it seems to work now.

AndyC · January 15, 2008, 10:36:33 AM

Can't believe this thing has actually passed the 1,000 views mark. It's actually climbing the list of most popular videos pretty quickly.

http://209.200.253.26/special/huntsville/videozone/index.php?id=65&region=Almaguin

By the way, if anybody's curious about what I sound like, there's a voiceover on the fireworks video right next to this one.