Drill Bits and Dynamite...Part Thirteen.......Larsen Creek and Cut 6

Larsen Creek Bridge and Cut 6...This is the area that stirred up the  protesters the most. The wetlands and creek that the old hiking path skirted around. I walked the path before we started work on the project. It was easy to see why the locals were upset about plans to run the highway through this lush, tranquil forest... just minutes away from the hustle and bustle of West Vancouver.


The project went ahead despite the epic struggle between protesters and the province. The only thing that could be done now, was to not make a huge mess, and do more damage than was totally necessary. Cut 6 was a large rock outcropping directly across from the wetlands. The blasting crew worked very hard to pull the shots away from the sensitive marsh area. Blasters do have reasonable control over the direction that a blast moves in, You need enough room to land a shot though...and we didn't have any extra here. We only had one shot that spilled some rocks over the fence when it all piled up....but it was easy to remove by hand-chucking the offending rocks into an excavator bucket and lifting them out.

I took these photos in the wetlands one fine summer day after work..

This is on the edge of where the road went through...the road didn't plow right through the marshy area

The footings just going in for Larsen Creek bridge...the construction road temporarily goes around

Looking up at one of the original trails...the other one came up Black Mountain Trail

Looking at Cut 6 before the overburden got stripped off

Formwork for the Larsen Creek bridge

The pile in front is wood waste from the tub-grinder that chews up all the branches and small trees...in the bad old days...this stuff got burnt on site...or hauled off and burned somewhere else

In the next few images....there are stop motion shots of a Cut 6 blast going off. ( one of many ) Loaded with Anfo and wired to pull away from the wetlands. You will see it move towards the wetlands as it expands, but it only does that because it has to fall that way after it hits the back wall of the shot. If it was wired normally ...that is...to move forward (towards the wetlands ) the whole shot would have ended up in the marsh.

One of the locals, Bruce MacArthur used to come up with his dog to watch us work....I don't think that he was allowed to be there, but I didn't mind...hell... it was his back yard!...We had to call into the bush to get him to come out whenever it came time to do a shot. I wanted to make sure that he was in a safe spot when the blast went off...if he wasn't too tired or bored.... he and the dog would trudge back into the bush when we were all done.

Wait for it...

Waiting...

First hole goes off..

A little more lively now..

And down it goes into a nice pile...easy digging

Pre-blasting Cut 6...wetlands across the road to the right

Leaving Cut 6 and heading north...the area on the right gets higher and drier as you move away from Larsen

Larsen and Cut 6 with Horseshoe Bay in the background

Looking south towards Cut 6 and Larsen Creek bridge

Retaining wall on the wetlands side and enviro fence

Portable rock crusher set up at Cut 6

Cut 6 blasting done...a pile of crushed rock in stockpile

Wetlands are on the high-side

Larsen Creek Bridge to Cut 5

The big yellow tank is a water tank..Kiewit calls them "Klein tanks"

Larsen Creek Bridge to Cut 5

Cut 6 to Cut 7