Blasting set to resume on west portion of Calgary ring road

Blasting is set to resume next week on the west leg of Calgary's ring road, after work was stopped over the holidays to address residents' concerns.

On Saturday, dozens of residents attended an open house to chat with experts about the project.

The blasting, which is being done on Paskapoo Slope, west of Canada Olympic Park and Cougar Ridge, is intended to lower the grade of the roadby removing about 20 metres of bedrock.

Kelley Curtin, who lives near the construction site, said a pre-existing hairline crack in the wall of her home was made worse by the blasting.

More pressingarethe voles that have been driven out of the blast zone and into her yard.

"Rodents have moved into our property and the voles have destroyed our lawn, they've moved into our shed, we have mounds of feces," she said.

Landon Repportwith Alberta Transportation said the province has organized visits to homes to address residents concerns and is reviewing data from blasting done so far.

"We don't believe the damage that they have was specifically from a result of the blasting that had been completed," he said. "All of the blasts that have been conducted and completed fall within generally accepted blasting practice within Canada."

As for the voles, the province has set out traps.

But Curtin said she still isn't satisfied with the province's communication around the project.

"[The open house is] not well organized. So it's really hard for residents to get a full picture of all of the information," she said.

The blasting is scheduled to continue until Fall 2020, and theentire 101-kilometre ring road is set to open in 2022.