Drill Bits and Dynamite Part Seven... Cut4 of the S2S Project

This is mainly a photo essay of the Cut 4 section/Segment 1, of the Sea to Sky project in West Vancouver BC.
There isn't too much drama here. Cut 4 was the first major cut of the new section of highway. This is where our blasting team started to grow and begin to really gell.
These entries won't really interest anyone, but the people who were there and maybe a few construction geeks. It's a good record of the work done.

The first set of aerial pics are taken part way through the job. The birds eye shots will help to orient the viewer to the location of the photos and stories. These are all photos that I took...usually with Robin MacGregor flying the helicopter in the aerial shots. Several different cameras were used, hence the different quality in some photos.

The untouched Eagleridge Bluffs....

The very first Tamrock Ranger 800 Rock Drill delivered from Traxxon...this is in Segment 2

Protester vehicle getting towed away

The first bit of Drilling in the Cut 4 area....just above the parking lot

Ranger drill and hoe-drill near the high point of Cut 4 on the North side

Excavator stripping off the over-burden on the Northwest side of the Cut 4 hump

Photo taken from the high point of Cut 4

The first few holes drilled into the top of the cut....

Standing on top..looking towards Cut 5 area that is just getting opened up for us

Standing on top of Cut 4...looking back towards the Upper Levels...some recent blast results in foreground

Same area...looking back up the other way

Placing blast mats on one of the first shots up near the high point....we were a reasonable distance from the road...but we didn't want any boo-boo's, so we matted the shots and closed the highway when ever we shot  in this area.

There's Wayne coming over to tell us that we are doing it all wrong, while he juggles two cell phones that he uses to keep up with all the girlfriends...whoops...I should probably delete that...fuck...now which button is which on this fucking thing...there, that's it. Done. Deleted.

On the North side of Cut 4...looking back

The Earthworks boys stripping off the overburden to get at the rock below

Drilling right above Eagleridge parking lot

Digging in the blast rock...right above the parking lot

Standing on Eagleridge Overpass...looking at Eagleridge Bluffs

Planning session between engineers and blasters...insert your own joke...or just laugh and giggle amongst yourselves...

My truck and a Kiewit truck parked in front of the 1250 Komastsu excavator

Looking down towards the parking lot and Upper Levels Highway

Our trusty powder truck

The 1250 placing blast mats..this was fun. A 200 sized machine struggles with the weight of the mats...the 1250 would throw two around like tissue paper....you just need to be a Saudi prince to put fuel in it every day.

Cut 4 after a bit of blasting and trail building

At the top of Cut 4..looking towards Cut 5....drills are set up to do the pre-shear drilling for the sloped outer walls of the cut

Hydro crews working on raising the powerlines on the North side of Cut 4. I had some great footage of the Bell 214 helicopter lifting the new poles into place...unfortunately...I think that footage might be lost

Hydro workers at the top of 110 ft poles

North side of Cut 4....standing under the power lines

Portable rock crusher in place...feeding right from the pile of blast rock

Two ranger drills working on the pre-shear line....you can see the hangars for the mesh that will be hung over the wall in the future to catch loose rocks

Drilling pre-shear holes...if you look on the aerial photos...this is at the top of the north side of Cut 4....it goes down 90 or 100 ft from here

Everyone pitched in to help load the shots...depending on the size of the blast...it could take from four to eight hours to load and tie the shot in.

Drillers helper Jeff Jones and Driller/blaster Paul Cooper

Lots of Amex to move lots of rock in a hurry