Watch a quarry blast at a small Ohio operation

Keeney Sand & Stone, a small family-owned aggregate producer in Painesville, Ohio, invited Pit & Quarry to its operation to see its last quarry blast of 2014. Hilltop Energy, which is based in Lisbon, Ohio, was contracted to perform the blast. Check it out in the video below.

According to blaster Steve Homan, this particular blast generated about 16,000 tons of rock that will help to guide Keeney through the end of the year. Twenty-three holes were loaded with 1-lb. boosters, each of which is the equivalent of seven sticks of dynamite, according to Homan.

“We don’t use the nitroglycerin-based stuff anymore because it’s unstable,” he says. “We don’t have to worry about the [boosters] sweating, deteriorating and breaking down.”

Holes were drilled previously in a staggered pattern, Homan adds, to provide Keeney with the slab rock it needs for landscape customers. And in this particular instance, Hilltop encountered an unusual amount of water in blastholes that it simply could not pump out.

“We maintained an 8-ft. water level in the holes,” Homan says. “They wouldn’t pump, so we had to use wet tubes in the bottom. “I shot this on a 1-lb. powder factor, which is 1 lb. per cu. yd. It really doesn’t sound like a whole lot but it is pretty powerful stuff.”