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Contractors were scheduled to remove it Monday near the Fort Street area, but found a big problem.

 

Ohio Department Natural Resources engineer Michael McAvoy says the boulder was too soft to be drilled into.

 

"This sandstone was so soft that they drilled into it quite easily and tried to split it apart. But where they drilled their hole and put their wedges into it, the rock was actually crushing under their wedges and it wasn't splitting apart. So, instead of getting nice large pieces, they were getting small pieces of sandstone about the size of a basketball or softball for their effort," said McAvoy.

 

Contractors had to order a boulder buster, which looks like a 12-gauge shotgun, to break up the stone.

 

The giant rock was situated next to another boulder which fell in March, crushing two vehicles and damaging two houses.