Cannonballs found at construction site at old arsenal location

PITTSBURGH — Cannonballs were discovered while crews were digging at a construction site that was previously an arsenal.

At least 21 cannonballs were found.

"You don't see something like this every day," Nick Leonello, of Franjo Construction, said.

A company out of Maryland has been called in by Franjo Construction to remove the explosives.

Construction work on a new residential and commercial development on Butler Street has been going on for months in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood.

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"We were digging and we uncovered one in the bucket and when we uncovered it we stopped work immediately," Leonello said.

The contractor said that they had archeologists at the location before, since it was the site of an old arsenal. Due to the history, the contractor said they might have come across explosives from the Civil War era.

Maps were used to show where cannonballs were, but these were not marked.

"We had maps of where we thought they were going to be. This is not one of those areas," Leonello said.

The bomb squad said there is no threat to the people living there.

Cox Media Group