Rocky Hill wary of fallout from blasting at Schafer Tract

Expert seeks to reassure residents at planning board meeting

By: Jake Uitti
   ROCKY HILL — An extensive blasting program as part of the proposed Schafer Tract housing development dominated discussion at a hearing of the borough Planning Board on the controversial 16-acre development on Thursday.
   The meeting included testimony of the Pulte/Schafer applicant’s engineer and blasting expert, who said about 30 percent of the development area would require blasting.
   The development is proposed to include 34 age-restricted, single-family homes in 17 duplex-style buildings on the 16-acre tract off Princeton Avenue.
   The blasting would mostly be conducted along the southern side of the property to create utility trenches, borough Mayor George Morren said.
   The applicant’s blasting expert, John Joseph, who owns a rock drilling and blasting business in Ringwood, said he has experience working with residential projects, including those in Princeton Township.
   Mr. Joseph said he will be conducting some "pre-blast" inspections of about 30 homes and buildings surrounding the Schafer Tract on Princeton and Crescent avenues, as well as the adjacent industrial park, to create a baseline of the homes’ existing conditions. The state does not require these surveys, he said.
   If damage is found after the blasting, Mr. Joseph said his company does carry insurance.
   There was concern from the residents that the blasting would be on the scale of Trap Rock Industries’ blasting, which involves rock quarrying on the eastern side of the Delaware & Raritan Canal in neighboring Franklin Township. Mr. Joseph, however, said his work would be only about 1 percent of Trap Rock’s scale.
   "The residents will feel us blasting," he said. "But the shots won’t be as long. They will be a lot smaller, and a lot less poundage," Mr. Joseph said.
   The reason for the blasting, he said, as opposed to excavation, is that a great deal of hard shale lies about 2 feet below the surface — which would take a great deal longer to remove by excavation, he said.
   Mr. Joseph said he expected about 30 days total of blasting, and only during business days. He said there will be about five to seven blasts per day between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Mr. Joseph’s crews will blow an air-horn before blasting each hole.
   Some concerns were raised by residents about the blasting being near Van Horne Park, which is slated to open in September.
   As a result, the Planning Board asked the applicant to provide a written safety plan for the construction site, which may include an individual conducting surveillance of the 16-acre parcel.
   Other concerns that were raised had to do with providing advance notice to senior citizens, who may become unsettled by the explosion noises near their homes. Borough Clerk Toby Whitlock said this would not be the first time blasting was done in the borough, noting that, among other instances, blasting was used to construct the sewer system.
   In addition to the blasting details, a proposed 18-foot wide alley behind the four westerly buildings on the site was discussed.
   The alley, which will alleviate some traffic from the site’s center roads, Borough Planner Duggan Kimball said, should be reduced to 12 feet in width so as not to appear to be another road. The applicant said it would comply with Mr. Kimball’s suggestion.
   Also discussed was the possibility of maintaining a fence currently separating the property from Princeton Avenue. Also, a 44-foot-long retaining wall along the southern side of the property, currently in the plans, was said to be "undesirable" by Planning Board Chairman Charles Pihokken. The applicant’s engineer said he would attempt to design it out.
   No action was taken Thursday, and the next meeting to discuss the application will be 7:30 p.m. April 20 at First Reformed Church. The meeting is expected to include testimony from the applicant’s architect.