What Was That Noise? St. Louis County Officials Share Video Of Blowing Up Roadway Near Proctor

If you live anywhere near the area of the intersection of North Cloquet Road and Midway Road, you probably heard a loud explosion on Tuesday.

The noise was part of the project to improve this intersection, where road crews used explosives as part of the project just west of Proctor.

Officials with St. Louis County shared a video yesterday, explaining the explosion sound many heard on Tuesday afternoon, saying it was "intentional". I certainly hope so! Haha

The video clip (below) shows the use of explosives in the construction area being used to "lower the profile" of Midway Road. While the explosion was serious work being done for important reasons, a few of the reactions heard in the video veer into the realm of "that was fun".

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While the voices are unidentified, right after the blast, you can hear someone say "nice!" while someone else says "well, that's it!" with a little excitement in their voice.

My presumption is that these are crew members and not just spectators, as I'd have to imagine they were managing who was in the area for safety while using the explosives.

If that is the case, I absolutely don't blame them for getting a little satisfaction out of the detonation. I'd probably have a hard time hiding some giddiness, too, if I were around.

The reason, by the way, for the desire to "lower the profile" of the road (necessitating the need for explosives) is to increase the sight distance, making the intersection safer. The goal is to lower the intersection by about 10 feet.

I'd say that explosion helped them on their way to that goal.

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County officials say this intersection improvement project is expected to be done by the end of August. In the meantime, the detours around this project are as seen below.

St. Louis County

You can learn more about this project on the St. Louis County website.