Kill Van Kill rock blasting vibrations

The New York District of the USACE ordered e4sciences|Earthworks to review rock blasting in Kill Van Kull and Newark Bay navigational channels. The SKVK1 project is ongoing. We installed and monitored our own seismographic stations. We reviewed all of the blast vibration records from the dredging contractors. We performed seismic tests on the monitoring equipment with independent seismographs. We evaluated the methods and calibrations used for monitoring. We evaluated the compliance with the contract and Federal, State, and local codes. We presented the results in public meetings and to the Congressional Representatives. We have compared blasting results with ambient traffic vibrations on Staten Island. e4sciences|Earthworks found that throughout the SKVK2 project, the production blasts complied with the contract and codes. All of the stations and their calibrations tested successfully. e4sciences|Earthworks compared waveforms from the contractor stations with our independent seismographs. The vibrations from the blasts were found to be comparable to vibrations caused by a bus hitting a pothole near the sensitive site. e4sciences|Earthworks produced a video of traffic and simultaneous vibration measurements.