Natick Residents Blame Blasting For Damage To Homes
NATICK (CBS) -- You may have seen it while commuting along Route 9 in Natick.
Surrounding homeowners say they've been feeling it. Some of them claim damage to their homes was caused by blasting for a new parking garage at The MathWorks, a computer software firm.
Tom Blackadar, his wife Paula Shakespeare and owners of three other homes have filed complaints with the Natick Fire Department about cracks in their foundations, walls, ceilings, a chimney and a patio they blame on the blasting.
But the fire chief says the town's seismic limits for blasting are twice as stringent as the state's and his department has monitored the blasting with seismographs. "Each time a blast has been conducted at this site, they have been beneath our local requirements," said Chief James Sheridan.
WBZ-TV's Ron Sanders reports
The drilling and blasting subcontractor sent the homeowners letters explaining the vibration measured by seismographs was well below the intensity required to cause the type of damage claimed.
The construction contractor for The MathWorks, National Development, says based on the evidence, the damage was not caused by activity on the site. "Whether or not any of this damage is associated with the blasting, I am uncertain," said Chief Sheridan.
The construction manager says the bulk of the blasting is over, but just as the project continues, so does the effort by the homeowners to get some sort of compensation for damage to their homes.
The MathWorks is a multi-national corporation that produces math software for government, industry, teaching and research. Most of its 2,200 employees work at the Natick site where the new parking garage is being built.
