[TowerTalk] Tower foundation and bedrock

[jimlux]

On 4/10/19 2:27 PM, Dick's wrote:
> Chuck - I don’t know if the explosives comment was tongue-in-cheek, but I think I would stay away from explosives. The last thing you want to do is loosen the soil surrounding the hole. Besides the weight of the foundation, I believe the stiffness of the soil around the concrete base helps to counteract the wind torque.


Properly used, explosives won't loosen the soil and are a cost effective 
and safe way to turn solid rock into something that can be hauled out 
easily. They do it all the time for things like swimming pool and 
basement excavation in residential areas. One "thump" and it's ready for 
hauling, as opposed to several days (or weeks) of hammering, especially 
if the rock is something hard like granite.

People get all freaked out by the fact that it's an explosive, and yet, 
they'll explode gallons of gasoline, a little bit at a time, in a 
trailer mounted compressor to run the pneumatic hammers.


Obviously, like any other skilled trade, it needs the right person.