South Terminal blasts don't make much of a splash
South Coast Today|Ariel Wittenberg|October 25, 2013
It wasn't a large plume of smoke. More like a puff. It was white, with a dim flash of red at the beginning. Roughly 30 seconds after the smoke dissipated, a small fountain of water bubbled up to the surface. It was the first of what will be 50 blasts in the bedrock to make way for large boats carrying turbine components to the under-construction South Terminal. Bill White is director of offshore wind for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which owns South Terminal.
It wasn't a large plume of smoke. More like a puff. It was white, with a dim flash of red at the beginning. Roughly 30 seconds after the smoke dissipated, a small fountain of water bubbled up to the surface. It was the first of what will be 50 blasts in the bedrock to make way for large boats carrying turbine components to the under-construction South Terminal. Bill White is director of offshore wind for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which owns South Terminal.
NEW BEDFORD — It wasn't a large plume of smoke. More like a puff. It was white, with a dim flash of red at the beginning. Roughly 30 seconds after the smoke dissipated, a small fountain of water bubbled up to the surface. It was the first of what will be 50 blasts in the bedrock to make way for large boats carrying turbine components to the under-construction South Terminal.
It wasn't much of a show, but that was the point.
Engineers with Apex, which designed the port facility, have been saying the blasts will be small, barely visible and create less vibration on land than a passing bus.
Standing on a boat moored near Tichon Seafood, roughly 1,000 feet from the blast site, Apex Senior project engineer John McAllister said the …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]NEW BEDFORD — It wasn't a large plume of smoke. More like a puff. It was white, with a dim flash of red at the beginning. Roughly 30 seconds after the smoke dissipated, a small fountain of water bubbled up to the surface. It was the first of what will be 50 blasts in the bedrock to make way for large boats carrying turbine components to the under-construction South Terminal.
It wasn't much of a show, but that was the point.
Engineers with Apex, which designed the port facility, have been saying the blasts will be small, barely visible and create less vibration on land than a passing bus.
Standing on a boat moored near Tichon Seafood, roughly 1,000 feet from the blast site, Apex Senior project engineer John McAllister said the first blast went as planned.
"It's just what I expected," he said. "It didn't even feel like a bus."
With McAllister was Bill White, director of offshore wind for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which owns South Terminal. He said he had been hearing about the blasting for months, but that "It's nice to see it went as planned."
Because it was a test, the blast Thursday will be more heavily reviewed than the 50 more that will follow in the coming weeks in order to bring a 15-to-25-foot-deep channel down to 32 feet.
Fourteen seismic monitors have been placed within a 1,500-foot radius around the blasting area, including at Palmers Island. A preliminary review of data Thursday showed the vibrations were within EPA-approved levels.
There are a lot of procedures in place leading up to each blast, which takes roughly 30 seconds before an all-clear is sounded.
Fourteen different agencies are given warnings two hours, one hour, 15 minutes and five minutes before each blast is set off by a vessel called The Kraken.
"There is an incredible amount of coordination here," White said.
New Bedford police and fire boats circle the area between Palmers Island and the New Bedford side of the harbor, keeping it clear from other vessels.
At 10 seconds, there is a countdown on the radio, then the blast. A puff of smoke, water bubbling up, and that's it.
Though Thursday's blast was technically a "test," McAllister said it will be identical to the ones to follow.
"You can't really do a dry run with explosives," he said.