Gallatin rocks!

Gallatin residents and business owners shook, rattled and rolled for a couple of seconds Tuesday, March 8, at about 4 p.m.

An air blast was responsible for the vibrations that noticeably shook houses and office buildings, according to Mark Garrison, who is the blaster working on the Gallatin sewer system.

Mr. Garrison said the contractors were shooting through bedrock northwest of town yesterday in order to lay the sewer lines.

Robert Smith is the driller. While he shoots off the dynamite, Mr. Garrison stays by a seismograph to monitor its readings

Yesterday, Mr. Garrison had set up the seismograph beside the Ferrel Gas building, which was about 150 feet from where they were blasting. The seismograph measures the intensity and duration of the ground vibrations and the nosie levels. Missouri law allows up to 1.5 air nosie and up to 130 vibrations on the graph. If it gets above that, they have to adjust the dynamite.

“We got no reading yesterday,” Mr. Garrison said. “Air blasts won’t give a reading.”

He said typically the vibrations from the blast go up into the air and dissipate. But because of yesterday’s cloud cover, the vibrations hit the cloud cover and came down twice as fast. The blast wasn’t actually shaking the ground.

Mr. Garrison must make out a blasting report for every shot. The report shows the location, the number of holes, the kinds and pounds of powder being used and how the powder is loaded.

Mr. Garrison says they also are required to let people know when they are blasting by setting of an air horn twice before they shoot.

“Clouds are the worst things for us,” he said. “It kinda shakes and rattles, but it’s not doing any damage.”