HERCULANEUM, Mo. — Neighbors are blaming a nearby construction project for damage to their Jefferson County homes.
They said blasting on a new Love's Travel Center in Herculaneum is causing concrete to crumble.
Anthony Perotti says he moved into Herculaneum’s Providence subdivision for three reasons: “Good friends, good people, good neighbors."
Over the last three years, he says things have changed.
“It’s been rough to be honest with you,” Perotti said. “It’s been a bunch of battles with the city trying to fight this Love’s project. Now they’ve started blasting.”
Perotti claims that blasting has caused multiple homes in his community to develop cracks in the foundation and drywall and has even blown out windows.
“Our community is getting slowly destroyed because of this,” Perotti said.
5 On Your Side took those concerns to Herculaneum City Hall where we were reassured that the contractor working on the Love’s location, Bloomsdale Excavating, has all of the proper permits from the state, which approved the blasting plan.
“I’ve been here for 27 years,” Bloomsdale Excavating Safety Director Brian Bauman said. “In all of my 27 years, our insurance has never paid out due to damages with vibrations and stuff like that especially with concrete.”
Bauman said the company installed seismographs and decibel readers to ensure no harm would come to the neighborhood and has yet to breach limits set by the city and state.
Bloomsdale Excavating even hired an independent third party to inspect the homes before blasting.
“There’s concrete being poured just 100 yards from where the blast is,” Bauman said. “If they’re doing that, there’s no chance a blast is going to crack that.”
“This is a big investment,” Perotti said. “People work hard for this. We’re just not getting a clear direction of who to call.”
That’s why Bloomsdale has set up an online tipline to field complaints: blasting@blex.com
“We feel we go above and beyond,” Bauman said. “We try to take care of everybody. If there were people in harm's way, we would be getting them out of homes and things like that.”
Love’s provided this statement in response to the situation in Herculaneum:
“Love’s Travel Stops strives to always be a good neighbor in the communities we serve, and that includes during construction of new locations. Blasting is a routine, necessary and highly regulated part of the construction process in Missouri, and Love’s and its contractors are meeting and exceeding regulatory requirements and safety standards. In addition to Love’s contractor monitoring seismic activity at the site and reporting those results to the state as required by law, Love’s has voluntarily engaged a third party to ensure and verify that ground vibrations stay below allowable levels.”
“Throughout the building process, Love’s has maintained contact with those in the community, including door-to-door notification that blasting would occur. Those lines of communication will remain open throughout the construction process, including the blasting, which is scheduled to end in the second half of next week.”