Kendall Yards - Controlled Explosion Goodness

For the past two years the big development story around here has been all Kendall Yards, all the time.  First came the cleanup, but only recently the dirt started moving for site prep and in a big way.  Beginning last week, much of the 'former' basalt outcropping was systematically dismantled.  To ease the task, a little TNT was used to get out some of the more stubborn stuff.  The video above was taken from what appears to be the vantage point of the health building.  Wait for the slo-mo replay at the end.  Those Black Rock folks mean business.

• Video: Controlled Explosion at Kendall Yards

Comments

[Mariah McKay]

I live down in Peaceful Valley on the other side of the river from the construction site. Every morning I hear these mysterious flute-like tones as I bike to work. I've asked people on the street if they hear the sound and they do, but nobody has any idea what it might be. It sounds like Indian pan pipes, or maybe a huge plastic recorder playing three different tones. It can be heard almost anywhere the traffic doesn't drown things out. Could it be that vibrations from the construction equipment are creating some kind of resonant echo where I live? The sound is everywhere in the neighborhood, and only in the mornings.

[Barb]

I have an answer to the mystery noise, thanks to a friend who works on the project. It's one of the huge dump trucks on the site. For some reason its exhaust system whistles, sounding like a flute, so they've named it “Flutie”.

[Ol Flutie]

My wife calls me Flutie for the same reason.

[InlandNWblog]

I called the City recently about the start of site preparation on Kendall Yards. The Planning Department told me that all they're doing at this point is infrastructure installation (sewer, electric, etc.) and apparently the devleoper hasn't brought any specific development designs forward for review. I wonder what's taking so long.