Report on impacts of blasting activities in the vicinity of Nakatooke

quarry.

An Assessment of the baseline survey.

1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 3
1.1. ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... 3
1.2. EARTH AS A BUILDING MATERIAL:......................................................................................3
2. WHY THE ASSESSMENT?................................................................................4
3. THE BLAST AND ITS INTERACTION WITH STRUCTURES....................................5
3.1. THE NATURE OF THE BUILDING MATERIAL...........................................................................5
3.2. THE GROUND VIBRATION AND AIR BLAST..........................................................................6
 3.3. MEASUREMENT OF DAMAGE POTENTIAL............................................................................7
3.4. SAFE LEVELS OF GROUND VIBRATIONS AND AIR BLAST......................................................8
4. FINDINGS -VIBRATION MONITORING RESULTS...............................................11
5. CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................ 11
6. ACTIONS TAKEN..........................................................................................12
7. RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................................................12
7.1. IMPLEMENTATION OF LIMITS........................................................................................... 12
6.1.1 Existing Recommendations.............................................................................13
6.1.2 Recommendations for Isimba quarry site.....................................................13
8. REFERENCES.............................................................................................. 13
9. APPENDICES............................................................................................... 14
9.1. APPENDIX-1: RECORDS OF VIBRATION MONITORING........................................................14
9.1.1 Vibration Readings 01......................................................................................14
9.1.2 Vibration Readings 02......................................................................................16

1. Introduction
1.1. Abstract
The purpose of this report is to assess the impact of the Construction and blasting activities at
Nakatooke quarry on the structures of the residents in the vicinity of Isimba HPP and to make
recommendations aimed at mitigating or limiting the possibility of damages due to operation of
heavy machinery or blasting activities.
The aim of this article is to assess the impact of blasting activities on the structural integrity of
mud and wattle structures vernacular to Uganda. The report also covers recommendations for
operation of machinery. The structures assessed are located within a 2 km radius of the
Nakatooke quarry located in Kayunga district.

1.2. Earth as a building material:

In scientific terms, earth is referred to as loam. It is a mixture of clay, silt (very fine sand), sand
and occasionally, larger aggregates. It is used all over the world in several forms, these being
handmade unbaked bricks (mud bricks/adobes); compressed unbaked bricks (soil blocks) or
compacted within formwork (rammed earth). In Uganda, the most common structures within
rural communities are mud and wattle constructions. Owing to the fact that loam is not a
standardized construction material in Uganda, information on its performance as a construction
material has been scarce. However, the need for an analysis of its performance has been
brought about by the opening up of quarries for large scale industrial constructions. The
aggregates were excavated by blasting, which was carried out within the framework of
conditions that take into account standardized structures built with the conventional materials
such as burnt clay bricks or concrete blocks. However, the performance of mud and wattle
structures does not seem to have been factored into the framework of considerations that
govern the compliances required for the attainment of permits for blasting activities.
In light of this, the need for an assessment of the performance of mud and wattle structures
under the cited conditions cannot be understated since blasting activities can have a
significant vibration output that has been known to damage structures.

In order to assess the performance of the subject structures, a baseline survey was carried out
on the structures within a 2 km radius of the blasting epicenter so as to assess their initial
conditions. During the initial survey it was noted that the structures varied in terms of their
characteristics. This was attributed to the differences in the amounts and types of clay used for
the construction, the silt content, the workmanship as well as the form of construction, be it
adobes, soil blocks or rammed earth.

2. Why the assessment?

The need for the assessment stemmed from the fact that the areas in the vicinity of the quarry
were previously populated by several rural communities for whom the only option in terms of
building material was and still is, the use of mud and wattle. This is because mud and wattle is
the most abundantly available building material, requiring little or no technology for
processing. This lead to a significant population 675 within the proximity of the dam area
alone. These Project Affected People were compensated and the land was handed over to the
Contractor for commencement of works on the Construction of Isimba Hydro Power Plant.
However the communities adjacent to the Project boundaries are still impacted by the blast
waves that occur due to the detonation of between 500 and as much as 3500 Kg of ammonium
Nitrate emulsion explosives. These blasting activities carried out at the quarry are approved
and a license for the activity has been obtained by the Contractor. However, the permit
conditions only oblige the permit holder to clear a 300m radius within the vicinity of the blast
epicenter. The propagated blast waves are felt as far away from the quarry as 15 km at the
Employers Camp Facilities. Whereas these may not necessarily damage the concrete block
buildings of the Contractor and the Client, the homes of the locals are mostly mud and wattle
and as such require an independent assessment of the impacts of the blasting activities
especially considering the fact that some of these are located as near as 5-10 km from the
blasting epicenter.
With Projects of this scale and magnitude, there are stringent measures put in place to protect
the interests of the local communities. Community sensitization has been conducted to inform
the locals of the potential impact of the blasting activities and of the notice and warning
system that warns of imminent blasting activities. However, this does not change the fact that
structures cannot be shifted and the local communities will have to bear the impacts of the
blasting activities. Despite incentives by the EPC Contractor, getting the local communities to
temporarily move further from the epicenter of the blasting activities has not been possible.
The number of households was just too numerous and the locals will still have to return to their
homes after the blasting activities are completed. A simple disturbance allowance does little or
nothing to restore a structure damaged by the blast waves.

3. The blast and its interaction with structures

3.1. The nature of the building material
The impacts of the blasting activities are not so easily ascertained mainly due to the varying
degrees of workmanship during the construction of the mud huts. However, there have been
claims that some brick houses have developed cracks and subsequently lost structural
integrity as a result of the blasting at the quarry. In view of the claims the EPC Contractor has
been requested to conduct vibration monitoring at varying distances from the epicenter of the
blasting activities. This was done mainly for the purposes of ascertain the EPCCs conformance
to international norms of maximum peak Particle Velocities during blasting. However an
attempt is likewise made to correlate this to the destructive capacity of the blasting activities
depending on the proximity to the epicenter as well as the Charge Quantities. However, it
should be noted that since the vibration monitoring activities were not always witnessed by the
Consultant, the veracity of the results cannot be guaranteed.*1
The main inherent difficulties with regards to working with adobe are:
1. Loam is not a standardised building material
Depending on the site where the loam is dug out, it will be composed of differing amounts and
types of clay, silt, and aggregates. Its characteristics, therefore, may differ from site to site,
and the preparation of the correct mix or a specific application may also differ. In order to judge
its characteristics and alter these, when necessary, by applying additives, one needs to know
the specific composition of the loam involved.
2. Loam mixtures shrink when drying
Due to evaporation of the water used to prepare the mixture (moisture is required to activate
its binding strength and to achieve workability), shrinkage cracks will occur. The linear
shrinkage ratio is usually between 3% and 12% with wet mixtures (such as those used for
mortar and mud bricks), and between 0.4% and 2% with drier mixtures (used for rammed
earth, compressed soil blocks). Shrinkage can be minimised by reducing the clay and the water
content, by optimising the grain size distribution, and by using additives.
3. Loam is not water resistant
Loam must be protected against rain and frost especially in its wet state.

The above stated have made it difficult to determine the actual impact of the blasting
activities. In addition, some of the structures had evident pre-existing damage most likely due
to poor workmanship and possibly due to the shrinkage of the soil as well as the poor water
resistance. However, it was said that the pre-existing damage was worsened by the impacts of
the blasting activities.
Given the potential for damage to property and the substantial nuisance caused to the local
population it is vital to have the impacts quantified so as to determine limits and mitigation
measures where applicable and possible. The damage to property can be caused directly by
ground wave movements or indirectly via potentially unstable soil or rock conditions in the
vicinity of the quarry site (e.g. soil liquefaction, slope failure). Air blast is not considered to be a
significant factor in causing damage to structures but is a significant nuisance to the local
communities in the vicinity of the quarry.

In view of the above, records of vibration monitoring will be used to assess the impact and
determine measures of mitigation if need be.

3.2. The Ground Vibration and Air Blast

The detonation of an explosive charge in a blast hole results in intense dynamic stresses
around the blast hole. This is caused by the sudden acceleration of rock mass by the
detonation gas pressure exerted on the whole wall. Consequently, a wave motion is set up in
the ground as the strain waves are transmitted through the surrounding rock mass. Different
mechanisms of breakage fragment the rock mass (crushing, radial cracking etc.) and this
impact is localized to the fragmentation zone. The rest of the energy is propagated through the
strain waves of lower intensity, unable to cause permanent deformation to the rock mass. The
Strain waves propagate through the medium as elastic waves, oscillating the particles through
which they travel. These waves in the elastic zone display visco-elastic behaviour and as such,
the strain waves are attenuated over distance since a fixed amount of energy gets spread over
a larger mass of material with increase in distance. However, larger amounts of explosives can
still result in the propagation of ground vibrations large enough to cause damage to structures
by causing dynamic stresses that exceed the material strength.
The following are some of the vibration predictor equations:

Where v is the peak particles velocity (mm/s), Q MAX the maximum charge per delay (kg), R the
distance between blast face to vibration monitoring point (m), and K and B the site constants,
which can be determined by multiple regression analysis.

3.3. Measurement of Damage Potential

Particle velocity is generally adopted worldwide as the best criterion for relating ground
vibrations to building damage. Levels of ground vibrations are also determined by
measurement of displacement or acceleration of a particle at the site.
The following equations show the relationship between velocity, displacement and
acceleration:

Eventually however, the performance of a structure will depend on a multitude of factors, some
of which include the type of foundation, underlying ground conditions and the building
construction as well as the state of repair of the structure.
Guidance on the levels of vibrations above which buildings could be damaged is mainly derived
from BS 7385*, however, for detailed engineering analysis, criteria other than the vibration
levels may need to be considered.
So as not to overlook the impact of human exposure to blast induced vibrations, reference is
made to BS 6472-2:2008.

Typical damage that can be expected in relation to the threshold value of the peak particle
velocity experienced in the ground waves from the blasts are indicated in table 1.(Reference 5),
from which it is evident that the onset of plaster cracking in a house occurs at a threshold peak
velocity of 50mm/s (2in./s). This criteria is universally accepted in North America.

Table 1:

Peak Particle Velocity Threshold

at Which Damage Starts
Type of Structure Type of Damage mm s kv per sec
Rigidly Mounted
Trip Out 1225 0.5
Mercury Switches
Houses Plaster Cracking 50 2
Set initial Limit of 125
mm/s (5 in. per sec)
Maximum at the Crusher
Concrete Block as in a Cracks in Blocks
200 8
New House
Cased Drill Holes
Horizontal Offset 375 15
Retaining Walls. Loose
Ground Mechanical
Equipment Pumps
Compressors 1000 40
Prefabricated Metal Beyond 250 rwn/ (10 In
Building on Concrete per sec) Major Damage
Pads Starts. Such as Possible
Shafts Misaligned Cracking of Cement Block
Cracked Pads Building
Twisted and
Distorted 1500
60

3.4. Safe levels of Ground Vibrations and Air Blast.

This report's recommendations for reducing ground vibrations and air blast levels are aimed at
minimizing distress to people as well as avoiding damage to buildings. Since humans respond
to levels of ground vibrations and air blast considerably lower than those necessary to induce
structure damage, the limits recommended construction projects are quite conservative. As
mentioned in Section 3.3, particle velocity is used as a parameter for damage assessment. It
should be noted that at a Construction site such as Isimba HPP, there are multiple sources of
these vibrations and therefore the limits recommended depend on the vibration source as
defined below:
Blasting
Pile Drivers, vibratory rollers and traffic
Air blast.
The current acceptable levels of ground vibration from blasting are recommended as in
Australian Standard AS 2187-983 (Reference 1). These are shown in Table 2.
Table 2 acceptable levels of ground vibration from blasting
 Notes:
1. In a specific instance, where substantiated by careful investigation, a value of peak particle velocity other than that
recommended in the table may be used.
2. The peak particle velocities in the table have been selected taking no consideration of human discomfort and the
effect on sensitive equipment within the building. In particular, the limits recommended for buildings types 2 and 3
may cause complaints.

Blasting: The control of blasting procedures to limit ground vibration levels to those outlines
in Table 1 should automatically limit air blast overpressures to safe levels with respect to
building damage. The proposed maximum levels are shown in Table 3 below.

Table 3 -maximum air blast levels

Pile drivers, Vibratory Rollers and Traffic:

The Construction Site has heavy machinery many of which could serve as a source of
Vibrations. Ground vibrations caused by these sources are of a continuous nature usually
lasting for extended time periods. Because of this, it is proposed that vibration limits should be
set at lower levels than from blasting. A peak particle velocity (VR max) limit of 5 mm/sec is
therefore recommended. Tynan (Reference 2) contains a handy user guide applicable to
vibrating rollers which approximates the recommended limit. It is shown in Table 4.
The actual results attached herein as appendix - 1 indicate for instance that at a distance of
400m, the vibration readings are 13 mm/s, which is close to the range indicated in table 2.
However, it should be noted that the charge used was over 2000 kg, with adjustments to the
quantities of charge used, the vibrations can easily be brought down to well within more
tolerable limits.
Table 4a: user guide applicable to vibrating rollers

* Values in brackets are those suggested to keep claims and complaints to an acceptably low level. For complaints to be
stopped completely in residential areas, these values would possibly be needed to be increased still further.

Table 4b: Air Blast:

Fig. 3.4 - 1 Response of the Human body to mechanical vibration (Goldman, 1948)

Fig. 3.4 - 2 Human and Structural response to sound Pressure levels.

4. Findings -Vibration monitoring results

The vibration monitoring is conducted using a seismograph with analysis software. The
seismograph consists of a 3-axis velocity transducer and a data acquisition storage device. The
blasting analysis software provides features for graphical output of the wave forms in each of
the 3 axes and a comparison of the measured peak particle velocities and frequency content.
The 3 axes correspond to the radial, transverse and vertical components to the velocities
measured. The blast records analyzed are taken from data of 5 blasts. The derived data is
attached as Appendix-1.

5. Conclusions
The nature of the building material used by the majority of the locals has certain inherent
characteristics which make identification of actual impact of the vibration caused by blasting
somewhat problematic. The shrinkage which occurs as the adobe dries, causes crack which are
easily mistaken for cracks caused by vibrations due to blasting. That is not to say that cracks
due to blasting do not occur, but rather, it implies that the material is not as strong as the
Concrete or burnt brick buildings that are within the same range from the blast epicenter.
Claims have also been made by owners of houses made of burnt brick, however, in some
instances, visual investigations of these cracks seemed to indicate that the damage was a pre-
existing condition since the surfaces of the cracks showed signs of aging. These were
compared with cracks on buildings were it was evident that the cracks had only recently been
formed. The types of structures and the quality of workmanship was also analyzed during the
baseline survey.
It can be concluded from the findings and from comparisons with international practices, that
the determining factor in setting up a limit for the vibrations is the human factor and its
response to the vibrations. The Effects of vibrations become intolerable to humans at a levels
appreciably lower than the levels at which structural damage occurs. It is therefore only fair
that the limits should be set based on these limits as is common practice internationally.
It should also be noted as an example that limits used in the US of peak particle velocity of
12.5 mm/s (0.5 in./s) have been known to reduce the number of complaints by a factor of three
compared to 50mm/s (2 in./s). In comparison, the United States Bureau of Mining (USBM)
recorded complaints on one construction site as high as 30% at 50 mm/s, 10% at 12.5 mm/s
and 1% at 2 mm/s, which is just the perceptible range. The current blasting code for Ontario,
Canada calls for a maximum peak particle velocity of 10 mm/s.

6. Actions taken
The EPC Contractor has put in place programs to sensitize the local residents of the possible
impact of the blasting activities. This has been done in accordance with the Explosives'
management plan that was submitted by the EPC Contractor. The local communities also stand
to gain from transfer of skills that is going on as the local workforce interacts with foreign
Contractor. This transference of skills most of which occurred during the initial stages of the
Project as the EPC Contractor Constructed the Camps, could serve as a template for the further
development of the region as the locals lean to build better. This is even more pertinent in view
of the fact that some of the structures/Buildings within the 2 km radius of the Blast epicenter
had showed signs of cracks. Some of these were attributed to poor workmanship.

7. Recommendations
7.1.Implementation of Limits

Different limits may apply depending upon whether there are national guidelines in use prior to
the introduction of this Report. The EPC Contractor is guided by the conditions pertaining to the
permits obtained for the blasting activities. It may turn out that the limits recommended by this
report may not be consistent with National guidelines on blasting activities. In such cases the
applicable limits are those set down in the Licence or Authority.
Ground vibration and air blast levels are generally measured at the nearest sensitive site.
However, in the interests of minimising potential negative impacts on the local communities,
monitoring has been conducted at various distances from the blast epicentre to establish
magnitude of ground vibrations propagated to given distances.

7.1.1 Existing Recommendations

In international practice, Work Authorities or Licence Conditions set limits for air blast and
ground vibration measured at sensitive sites and these are set as follows:
Ground vibration at sensitive sites should be below 10mm/s (ppv*) at all times, and
Airblast at sensitive sites should be below 120dB (Lin Peak*) at all times.
7.1.2 Recommendations for Isimba quarry site
The levels for vibrations and Airblast for the communities in the vicinity of Isimba HPP's quarry
are recommended as follows:
Ground vibration at sensitive sites should be below 5 mm/s (ppv) for 95% of all blasts.
Airblast at sensitive sites should be below 115dB (Lin Peak) for 95% of all blasts.
In view of the above, the EPC Contractor is advised to limit the quantities of explosives
used so as to ensure that the ground vibrations and airblast are limited to the ranges
indicated above.

Note: In situations where the location or the nature of the operations mean that this is not
achievable, these standards may be varied, subject to the relevant authorities being satisfied
that all effected people have given informed consent).
8. References
1. Standards Association of Australia (SAA). Explosives Code AS2187-983 Part, Use of
Explosives.
2. Tynan A.E. (1973). Ground Vibrations, Australian Road Research Board Special Report.
3. BS 7385-2:1993: Evaluation and measurement for vibration in buildings. Part 2: Guide to
damage levels from ground borne vibration.
4. BS 6472-2:2008: Guide to evaluation of human exposure to vibrations in buildings. Part 2:
Blast induced vibrations
5. Surface Mining. Second Edition, edited by Bruce A. Kennedy, Society for mining, metallurgy
and Exploration (US).

9. Appendices
9.1. Appendix-1: Records of Vibration Monitoring.
9.1.1 Vibration Readings 01
Distance from Epicentre 400m
Number of Holes 139
Total Charge (Kg) 2034

i. Velocity Graph
 ii. Results:
Maximum Velocity 0.13 cm/s
Frequency 22.3 Hz
 9.1.2 Vibration Readings 02
Distance from Epicentre 310 m
Number of Holes 148
Total Charge (Kg) 3456
i. Velocity Graph
 ii. Results:
Maximum Velocity 0.4311 cm/s
Frequency 22.2 Hz