[font=Verdana]That's probably why the demolition work at Tryon and Stonewall streets has become something of a spectator sport in the southern part of uptown since it started two weeks ago, with people in nearby buildings timing their breaks or peering out their windows at the scheduled time to catch a glimpse.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Around [/font][font=Verdana]3:30[/font][font=Verdana] on most afternoons, construction workers on the block where Wachovia is building a new 40- to 45-story office tower wave their orange flags, signaling that something is coming.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Then a geyser of dirt shoots in the air as the ground rumbles for a few seconds, and people in nearby offices let out yelps of surprise as their buildings quake.[/font]

[font=Verdana]"There are days when you forget about it," said Tina Worley, who works on the 12th floor of the Duke Energy building next to the site. "Then you're like, `What is that?' You can feel it up and down the building."[/font]

[font=Verdana]Duke had its shareholders in town to approve a big merger Friday. Although most blasting happens mid-afternoon, Duke executives asked the construction company not to blow up anything during the morning shareholders meeting, just in case.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Duke didn't want anyone thinking: "Earthquake!" Worley said.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The explosions will help carve a 100-foot-deep hole for a parking garage beneath the new Wachovia building, which is expected to open in 2009. It will house traders, investment bankers and a [/font][font=Verdana]Wake[/font][font=Verdana] [/font][font=Verdana]Forest[/font][font=Verdana] [/font][font=Verdana]University[/font][font=Verdana] business school.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Wachovia says the blasting -- which many uptown workers were warned about in office e-mails three weeks ago -- should last for about eight months, although it won't occur every day. It's the only way to dig a deep hole in uptown's notoriously stubborn soil.[/font]

[font=Verdana]"It's pretty common to hit rock in uptown [/font][font=Verdana]Charlotte[/font][font=Verdana] if you're going very far into the ground," city engineer Jim Schumacher said.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The tough vein of granite has frustrated construction workers and slowed uptown projects for years -- from Interstate 277 and The Charlotte Observer building in the late 1960s and '70s to the new convention center in the 1990s to Bank of America's [/font][font=Verdana]Hearst[/font][font=Verdana] [/font][font=Verdana]Tower[/font][font=Verdana] in this decade.[/font]

[font=Verdana]"Downtown [/font][font=Verdana]Charlotte[/font][font=Verdana] sits on a lot of nasty stuff," said Stephanie Smith with Batson Cook, an Atlanta-based construction company that has built many of uptown's tallest buildings -- and deepest parking garages.[/font]