True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice, St. Francis of Assisi once said.

Insightful and true, indeed. But sometimes you just have to blow things up.

As part of the development of the Pittsburgh Airport Innovation Campus, a 195-acre site that will feature office space, research and development laboratories, industrial manufacturing and a town center, contractors recently spent several days performing blasting operations for rock excavation.

Tons of dirt erupted into the air during the explosions, which were closed off to sightseers and the media.

The three-phase construction plan for the PAIC includes up to 16 pad-ready sites available by 2023, and is modeled after the Schiphol development at Amsterdam International Airport.