Blasting Resumes At Lot 31

After a hiatus, blasting that left some neighbors rattled began again at the Lot 31 construction site last Friday, The Gazette reports.

The blasts began on Dec. 5 after crews conducting excavation encountered a level of dense, hard rock, according to the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center. The blasting was halted temporarily Dec. 18.

Doug Firstenberg, a principal at StonebridgeCarras, told The Gazette the blasting will continue for another few weeks.  Excavation at the site is about 80 percent finished and is expected to be complete in two months, The Gazette reported.

The construction project, known as Lot 31, has taken out a popular Bethesda Row surface parking lot with about 270 spaces. An underground parking garage with 940 public spaces and two mixed-use residential buildings -- one five stories, the other nine stories -- are planned for the site, located at the intersection of Bethesda and Woodmont Avenues on busy Bethesda Row and across the street from Bethesda's iconic Barnes and Noble. 

Some residents taken aback by the work mistook the blasts for an earthquake, a car hitting a building, and even a meteor strike, The Washington Post reported.