The city of Sedona has resolved to complete the Forest Road connection project even if it requires the use of high explosives.
“Blasting is planned on some areas of the project site,” the city’s webpage for the project informs residents. “The contractor will generally employ mechanical methods using heavy equipment [bulldozers, and excavators with hydraulic rock hammers] to remove the weaker and less dense rock strata, and explosive [blasting] techniques to remove the harder and more dense rock strata.”
The city also sent out pre-blasting surveys to the owners of all properties within 500 feet of the blast sites in order to “ensure property owners that monitoring will be done during blasting to ensure that no damage is done to your home or business.”
However, apart from these announcements, the city of Sedona has been keeping very quiet about the exact dates and times at which it intends to complete the required blasting work. The project webpage informs residents that “advanced notice of blasting activities is typically no less than 24 hours,” without providing any additional detail.
“It has not started yet,” Director of Public Works Andy Dickey confirmed on Dec. 20. “It’s going to be probably January or February.”
Dickey said he was unaware of the number of blasting sessions planned or the estimated timeframe for those sessions and stated that the contractor would have that information.
Brian Fuller, of Fann Contracting, project manager for the Forest Road connection project, did not reply to multiple requests for additional information on the planned blasting operations.
While the city and contractor will be conducting this blasting work under a permit granted by the Sedona Fire District, confusion exists within the SFD over the current status of the city’s blasting plans.
SFD Acting Fire Marshal Kirk Riddell stated on Dec. 19 that while the city had placed seismic measuring equipment by the department’s communications towers a couple of months previously, “we haven’t heard or seen anything since.”
He added that SFD was unaware of whether or not blasting work had begun, as the city was not communicating with them.
SFD Fire Chief Ed Mezulis had previously commented that no members of the fire district are required to be at the construction site while blasting operations are taking place.
“It would be up to the blasting company,” he said.
This contradicts the language of the permit application itself, which reads, “The Fire Marshal and/or Fire Inspector will be present for ALL blasting.”
Although Dickey previously said that he would direct city staff to look into providing a copy of the blasting permit to the Sedona Red Rock News, that copy has not been forthcoming.
In addition, no copy of the blasting permit has so far been posted at the work site, as required by SFD regulations.
The city also planned to use blasting to prepare the site for the proposed Uptown parking garage, which is now on hold following public concern over its cost and utility.
The explosives used for the Forest Road extension project will most likely be dry blasting agents, which, according to the Federal Highway Administration, are “the most common of all explosives used today. Approximately 80% of the explosives used in this country are dry blasting agents.”
The primary dry blasting agent is ANFO, an oxygen-balanced mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil.
The majority of excavation work for the roadway has been completed and a 4×4- accessible road now exists along all of the planned route of the future paved extension except for approximately 50 feet at the southern end.
This area is substantially higher than the existing grade at State Route 89A and will need to be deeply excavated in order to complete the connection to the highway.
The Forest Road connection is currently scheduled for completion in November 2023.
