There were fireworks — underground — on Wednesday, Nov. 29, as contractors working for the city of Sedona blasted a rock face to help clear a path for the Forest Road Extension, which will eventually connect Forest Road and Uptown to westbound State Route 89A west of the Sedona post office.
We have been covering this project for at least the last five years as it moved from the planning stage to design to eminent domain proceedings for the city to acquire the parcels needed for the roadway, and then to clearing the area above the rocks and finally blasting on Wednesday morning.
The detonation was the first in a series that is expected to run through Thursday, Feb. 29.
The Sedona Fire District, which signs off on the blasting permits, expects 12 to 13 more blasting days during the next three months.
There appears to be no hard schedule for the work, as the city and contractor only sent out notices about 72 hours ahead of time, and blasting will be dependent on weather and conditions on the ground, according to authorities.
Keeping Sedona residents informed, we will do our best to give you advance notice of these days, either through our print newspaper when we have enough lead time or at least on our website and our Facebook page should the announcement come after our next print deadline.
The next blast for the Forest Road project will takle place on Tuesday, Dec. 5, during the same 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. window.
The city of Sedona did send out a notice for the Wednesday blast via its Nixle service, but it was sent out at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 28, less than 18 hours before the explosions, giving passersby little time to make arrangements to pass through the area should there be a longer traffic delay or debris blasted onto the roadway that would have to be removed.
Rock removal with explosives is safer and more efficient than it was decades ago, when such work may have been more slapdash. Readers should be aware that no explosives are stored on site and there is no risk of an accidental explosion from unattended materials.
The explosives are brought to Sedona from Benson in Cochise County and used for that day’s blast. The next blast will require another shipment.
SFD does not officially sign off on blasting permits until 20 minutes or so before the blast, when all the explosives are placed and properly secured and everyone at the site is ready to go.
Wednesday’s blast was a relatively quick affair, as you can read in the narrative written by our reporter Tim Perry, who was at the scene near the Ranger Road roundabout. Sedona police closed off State Route 89A for about five minutes before the blast. There was a loud klaxon sound, a brief pause, a second klaxon and before the echo even died down, the blast pulverized part of the hillside, sending a plume of rock dust into the air that drifted across the roadway. Two minutes after the detonation, Sedona police reopened the road.
Drivers who entered Uptown at 9 a.m. and left after 9:30 a.m. wouldn’t even have noticed there was dynamiting unless they glanced up the hill.
This is also not the only blasting project currently occurring in the Sedona area. Crews working on the Arizona Water Co. tank off State Route 179 and Mallard Drive are conducting less powerful and less destructive blasting, probably on only half a dozen more dates. The Arizona Department of Transportation is conducting rockfall mitigation in Oak Creek Canyon across from Therapy on the Rocks just north of the Owenby Way roundabout, so be prepared for short closures next week as crews blast away potential loose rocks. Over a decade ago, we reported on a driver whose passenger-side seat was smashed in by a large falling rock. That could have been fatal had someone been sitting there. The risk is real.
The Forest Road Extension does demonstrate, however, that major earth-moving projects to improve Sedona’s traffic congestion are possible. Despite the significant amount of time between planning and blasting and the legal and regulatory hoops the city, other local governments and contractors had to jump through in order to begin construction, major roadwork improvements can be done. Residents who want better traffic flow between Uptown, West Sedona, the Chapel Area, Gallery Row and the Village of Oak Creek should press city leaders to make these improvements and know that earth-moving work is not impossible.
