The blast lasted only seconds, but curious onlookers got what they came for.

"A big explosion," said Travis Shore.

Shore and his father, Robert, came to see the blast on Friday. Robert said his son and he had been waiting to see it.

"We always come down here and run, getting ready for soccer, and we watch the dump trucks 'cause he likes to watch them, and we heard about the blast today so we came down to see it," said Robert.

Onlookers and the people in charge of the blast all stood in a safety zone, an area designated a safe distance from the explosion. Before the blast, police officers blocked the roadway and company officials with Senex Explosives called down to workers preparing the blasting holes. The blasting company was in charge of drilling more than 150 38-feet-deep holes packed with explosives.

Once the alarm sounded three times, photographers had one minute to prepare their cameras to catch the blast.

Mike Dolak, Steubenville's city engineer, explained to NEWS9 why the blasting was needed for the area.

"We've had two large sandstone boulders come down. One in the middle of March, and one in the beginning of April. One the size of a small automobile," said Dolak. "This is a major artery to the west end, approximately about 16 to 17 thousand cars a day."

Once the all-clear alarm sounded, crew began clearing the debris from the roadway. Dolak said it's something they need to do as quickly as possible.

"The project completion date so we can utilize a hundred percent of federal funding is September 2, 2011. If we go beyond that date, unfortunately, it falls to an 80-20 split," said Dolak.

Officials said the work will be completed by that date, so they avoid that 80-20 split.

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