Threatened with Lawsuits and Playing Nice With the Neighbors

The Sea to Sky Highway project was a lightning rod for protests and meetings of concerned citizens. The Eagleridge protesters were concerned that their favorite backyard play ground was getting ruined and that the whole thing was a waste of tax payers dough. The local residents were worried about noise,dust, traffic changes and large scale blasting operations in their exclusive West Vancouver zip code.

 Along the way, a group of people who lived nearest to the blasting areas, threatened the contractor and government with a class action lawsuit for disturbances caused mostly by the blasting operations. The contractor sent a consultant to meet with several members of the group. He ended up talking technical gibberish and worked really hard to infuriate the residents that he met with. One of the big stumbling blocks for this fellow was that the people he was talking down to, were accomplished, successful and smart businessmen. Having someone pat them on the head and tell them to just never mind...was a bad move. Worried people that turn into pissed off people, can make things ugly really quick.
 I talked with our project manager about this one day, he mentioned the name of one of the men involved in the complaint. I thought I recognized the name, and asked if I could talk with the guy. I got the nod to go ahead, got the fella's number and dialed him up. I asked for a quick meeting to talk and figure out if I knew this guy. Turns out it wasn't who I thought it was. Same name, age and engineering background...but a different guy.
 He was concerned that the blasting operations were going to do expensive damage to his house, and he also mentioned that the blasts were scaring the crap out of his wife, as well as the other neighbors. We were blowing the warning horns before the blasts, but they couldn't hear them. The noise of the Upper Levels highway and the sound proofing of the high end houses kept the sound of the warning horns from being heard. So out of the blue, a giant crack and boom, with a ground shake would catch them off guard. 

 As I walked around this guy's house, It was hard to miss the gorgeous cars in the the garage. It turns out that this retired engineer is a hard core auto nut, that has a 550 hp custom crafted Porsche as a daily driver. A photo in the shop shows the car and driver at a racetrack, cornering so hard that the inside wheels are lifting off the ground! We talked about cars instead of blasting for a while, before I invited him on a tour of the work site.
I thought that if he could see what we were doing and how we were going about it, it would ease some of the fears and animosity. I explained how the blasting systems worked and how we worked to control each blast.

I made a deal with this guy to call 24 hrs in advance of all our blasts, and to put seismograph monitors at the house. In addition, either myself, or another company rep would be at the house when the blasts were set to go. I extended the same service to the other near-by residents. 

 I arranged to be at this house for the next blast that was scheduled. It was kind of fun. I had communications with the blasters by cell phone and work radio. When the time was near to fire the shot, I asked the home owners if they were all good and ready. I radioed back to the blaster that Mr and Mrs xxxxx were ready, and go ahead with the shot. The entire Upper Levels was shut down and cleared of traffic, and on the "go" signal, the firing button was pushed. 

 You know, I've got to tell you, if you weren't ready for it....the noise and tremor would definitely ruin your day! The seismo readings were all well with in safe vibration limits, it was just the "seat of the pants" feeling that made it more dramatic than it really was.
 So this became our new routine. Call the residents 24 hrs before the shot, and then 1 hour before. Anyone who wanted a company rep at their house, got one. We put seismographs at the nearest houses, and at the residences of the most "vocal" neighbors. As an added bonus, I would give them all copies of the heli photos that included their houses from time to time. On occasion, when they were getting comfortable with us, some of the near-by residents would  make a request  to come out and watch the blasting operations. If we had a 100% safe observation point, we'd make that happen.
 In the end we had great relations with all the closest home owners and all the legal tensions were pretty much eased off. I went back to the car enthusiast neighbor to take these photos on my day off.

Here's a step by step outline of the process we took on that site.
 1. Be totally open and honest with the residents
 2. Show them, instead of telling them
 3. Stand in their shoes, to understand their message
 4. Take real and visible steps to reduce the impact on their daily lives
 5. Treat them with respect, while moving the job ahead
 6. We worked hard to plan and execute safe, productive and low impact blasts. Sometimes this cost the company a bit more money, but it eliminated legal hassles and potential job shut downs. Some of the blasts that were just across the highway from these homes were huge by West Vancouver standards. We shot lots of blasts in the 1000 to 2000 cube range. The closest "large" blast was a 9000 cubic meter nail biter, that went off with out a hitch. A bit further around the corner in Cut 4, we routinely shot 10,000 to 13,000 cubic meter ground pounders....the effects of which were tamed by the distance factor.
 7. An important factor was that my boss allowed me to take these steps. In a multi-billion dollar, mega corporation like Peter Kiewit Sons, that doesn't always occur. This time, in this place...it worked out just fine.