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Excavating rock

To: shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Excavating rock
From: "Trevor Boicey" <tboicey@brit.ca>
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 00:07:28 -0400 (EDT)
Has anyone here had any experience in getting excavation done on a site
that includes a fair bit of rock?

I am looking at buying a waterfront lot around here, but it's been unsold
for a few years because of some unlucky geology.

The area is sloping down the entire way to the water. Lots of exposed
boulders and such but generally all the same slope down. All the
neighboring properties just picked a spot, levelled it, and built.

However, on this site, right where you'd want the building to be is a wall
of rock probably 30 feet high, that tops out at the top plateau that then
goes back for hundreds of feet. So for this spot, instead of the slope
going up and levelling off at the plateau like the other lots, there is a
small cliff at the top.

Because of setback requirements, there isn't room to build in front of the
wall of rock without getting a variance. Architecturally I'd love to pin
something right in front of and into the wall, but that's pretty
ambitious.

What would need to be done would be to have a section of rock removed.
Perhaps 30 feet high, 50 feet wide, and maybe 30 feet back to make a shelf
for the structure.  There would be ample place on the lot to dump the rock
once removed.

I know this is not going to be cheap, but does anyone have some idea what
could be used in a situation like this?

Perhaps some blasting and then hauling out the remnants and repeating? Or
can excavating machines do this without explosives?

The rock is generally solid but there are many visible fault lines and
cracks and parts that have fallen away. Unsure how it would respond to one
of those "jackhammer-tipped" excavators.






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