Fox 17 Nashville on Oct 22,2008
Link:http://www.fox17.com/newsroom/top_stories/wztv_vid_4486.shtml
Article (in case the remove the story):
Investigators at Dickerson Pike Construction Site
State and Metro Fire Marshalls are reviewing their findings following inspections at a Dickerson Pike construction site.
Blasting - Tuesday - sent large chunks of rock into nearby businesses.
Meanwhile, nearby homeowners say the construction has damaged their properties too, and it's been going on for a while.
Construction of a new Lowe's on Dickerson Pike has been going on for months, and folks around the area say they've noticed accruing damage to their properties the whole way through.
An insurance agent jots down the damage at Nashville Refrigeration on Dickerson Pike.
It's the third time they've been out this year.
Larry Wiley worries one day soon, a hearse will come instead.
"The point is I don't want to walk in my office one day and see a rock laying on one of my secretaries with her head all bashed in. Or it happen to me."
"It's unbelievable," says Representative Ben West, (D) Hermitage.
"What I saw and heard about yesterday is uncalled for. You're putting people at risk to equate in making money."
West says he's pushing for tougher legislation this January that will better regulate blasting zones, and keep possibly fatal chunks of rock like this from flying around.
But some say more needs done.
The problems may extend beyond flying rocks - there are homeowners around here who say seismic waves are shaking the foundations of their homes.
Nina Ground says her home - and many others in the area - now suffer structural damage.
She points out cracked foundation, separating walls, cracks with fresh dirt seeping in.
Ground wants more science involved in regulations, because she thinks bureaucracy is failing.
"We need to look at everything from what's happening on top to way down under. If you've got 25 foot holes and we don't know the size and pack of that blast, we don't know what's coming out from it - the waves."
Larry Wiley just wants action -- before one of these rocks hits a little closer to home.
"Somebody's going to get hurt - and that's what I'm afraid of."
Our calls to the construction company involved in the blasting were not returned.
A metro hearing on Tuesday's incident is scheduled for October 28.
