This is during the Sea to Sky project. Several power poles in between Cut 4 and 5 needed to be replaced with taller poles. The new overland section of the highway in this area was getting built up by about 40 feet. The old poles would not have given enough clearance. This video and others has been hidden away on old mini-discs for all the years since this job. My writer/photographer/videographer friend managed to recover the files. There will be some new blasting videos coming shortly.
Hydro truck setting up on the lower side of the job. These are the poles that are right above the ferry terminal parking lot.
The guys on this power-pole job were fantastic to work with. Friendly, outgoing and totally professional without the posturing that sometimes goes with big boy macho work. It's important to keep in mind the extreme danger involved in this type of work. A mechanical failure in the helicopter at the wrong time...is going to ruin the day for a lot of people. A broken lift line, same thing. The workers on the ground could get hit by the multi-ton power pole as it swings into place. Something as simple as getting hit by flying debris from the down-wash could be disastrous.
One of the interesting side stories goes like this...We were lifting the poles and cross beams from the Eagleridge parking lot. It was relatively close to the Upper Levels Highway and especially Exit 2 . The pilot Jeff Brown wanted us to stop traffic while he was lifting the poles, in the event that anything went wrong, and he needed extra room to move. Usually it's not a problem to stop traffic for a bit. But because the big helicopters had been so busy on other jobs, we were working on a day that didn't permit any extended stops. We needed the big Bell 214 to do the work, or we would lose it for weeks to someone else...so we went ahead and stopped traffic anyways while Jeff was lifting the poles out of the parking lot. We had all of our official traffic people in place...and I think that the M.O.T. people were on side. The fur started to fly when the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal manager figured out that we were stopping traffic from getting to the terminal ( for a few minutes at a time ) He got a hold of me (because he had my number...and I was dumb enough to answer the phone)...he just completely went ape-shit over the traffic delays and the fact that we weren't really allowed to stop traffic at all. I explained that we had only a small window of opportunity with the helicopter company. He wasn't even slightly impressed. . I phoned my project manager to tell him the happy news. ( I'll leave his name out of this, I think he is happily employed and wants to stay that way ) He asked for the details of what we needed to do to finish and then said that he would get in touch with the ferry manager and try to calm him down. The mathematics of the situation allowed him to shrug off the threatened fines...the helicopter crew, Hydro crew and our people were running well over 10,000 dollars per hour. A fine of several thousand dollars was a small thing compared to completing a critical piece of work.
Later in the afternoon, when I had to go down into the terminal traffic line-up to clear a safety zone for installing poles right above the parking lot, nobody said a word. The ferry traffic flaggers helped me to keep travelers out of the danger zone while the Bell 214 rumbled overhead to place two poles. It must have been a very exiting day for drivers waiting for the ferry.
Tail-gate meeting and getting the tools
The Hydro guy in the video, Frank, whose last name I don't recall....was a super guy to work with. He became my Hydro contact for times when we needed to work with or around Hydro. A few times I called him and his crew when we had high risk blast to do. It works in everybody's best interest to have the Hydro guys around if there's a chance that our work might affect their gear. ( as in a blast tearing out the poles or wires )....luckily we didn't need their repair services, but it was good to have them just in case.
The pole sits in a steel liner that is buried in the ground 12 to 14 feet. Once the pole is in and straight...it gets back-filled with the gravel
High climbers getting ready to install the cross-beams that the helicopter will lower to them
Hydro truck extending up to the top of the poles
...these guys are a long ways off the ground
That's got to be about max reach for that truck
The crew in the bucket truck lifting the de-energized powerline into a higher perch
Team work at it's best
Installing the cross beams...I have video of the the helicopter lowering them into place...but the disc is degraded...and the quality poor
Literally...a high wire act
Here's a few other helicopter related videos from other people...
I have talked about Stephen Stills ( Crosby Stills Nash and Young plus Buffalo Springfield ). I just finished a post that went on a bit about Harry Nillson. Well both of those musicians auditioned for the 1960's TV show, the Monkees. Can you imagine what the musical world would have been like if these masters of rock and pop might have detoured into a Saturday morning TV show? Stephen Stills, best friends with Jimi Hendrix was once invited to be the bass player in Jimi's band. He once commented on writing songs about women "there are three things that men can do with women, love them, suffer for them, or turn them into literature. I've had my share of success and failure at all three" Stephen recommended a friend of his to the television producers, Peter Tork.
A great deal of the Monkees tunes were written by the song writing duo, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. Neil Diamond wrote "I'm a Believer". Glen Campbell and Leon Russell were session players for the TV soundtrack. ( as part of the "Wrecking Crew" of unknown, uncredited professional musicians.) The song "Last Train to Clarksville" was a hit even before the full cast was in place for the show. The first TV version was performed by Boyce and Hart with their band, "the Candy Store Prophets" The song was meant to be an anti-war song referring to a train that is heading to an army base during the Vietnam era draft.. The last line says " I don't know if I'm ever going home"
The team of Boyce and Hart wrote songs for Fats Domino, Chubby Checker, Jay and the Americans, Paul Revere and the Raiders...the theme tune for "Days of Our Lives", and performed on the TV shows "The Flying Nun" and "I Dream of Jeannie".
In the mid 70's and later in the 80's, they teamed up with ex-Monkees Davey Jones and Mickey Dolenz to tour the world performing the songs of the Monkees albums. This group called Dolenz Jones Boyce and Hart were the first American rock or pop group to play in Thailand.
I started on this path talking about the movie "My Dinner with Jimi" The movie featured a look a like actor portraying Cass Elliot ( the Mamas and Papas ).. The actress who played Cass Elliot wasn't a good fit. It reminded me of a high school play sort of caliber at that point. Luckily there were other scenes and actors to pull the movie out of the nosedive.
Cass Elliot's real name was Ellen Naomi Cohen. Contrary to legend, she did not choke on a sandwich or hamburger. She did die of an apparent heart attack in London, England while on tour there. The interesting part is that she died in the London apartment of singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson. Cass Elliot was 32 when she died on July 24, 1974. The wild and crazy drummer for the Who, Keith Moon died in exactly the same apartment, four years later on September 7, 1978. Keith Moon was also 32 years old when he took his turn at dying in Harry Nilsson house. Keith had been out for dinner with Paul McCartney on the eve of Sept 6. He went home and accidentally or purposely overdosed on doctor prescribed medication. Likely poor Keith couldn't bear the thought of another evening with Paul McCartney, so he just cashed in his chips right then and there. The wild man Keith Moon is credited with giving the band Led Zeppelin their name.
Harry Nilsson was a singer/songwriter of exceptional talent. He wrote many big selling hits for other artists and had fantastic success himself. His biggest downfall as a pop musician was his huge dislike for touring and live performances. Harry became friends with John Lennon, and the two went down some very strange, booze and drug fueled paths together. This included getting tossed out of the Troubador club for heckling the Smothers Brothers, and Nilsson throwing a bottle through a 30 foot high hotel window. Harry Nilsson died of a heart attack in 1994 at age 52. One of his songs that is rarely attributed to him is "Put the Lime in the Coconut"
Ok, so last time we talked about the 1960's rock band "The Turtles"... a bit about Frank Zappa... Then touched on Deep Purple's song about the blaze that burned down the concert venue beside Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Deep Purple was the brain-child of drummer Chris Curtis who partnered up with businessman Tony Edwards to construct a "supergroup" The band's original name was the "Roundabouts", the idea being that band members would come and go as required, similar to getting on and off a roundabout.
The Roundabouts had some serious roots in the British rock and R&B scene. Founding member, Nick Simper used to play for Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, right up until one day in 1966 when a horrendous car crash that he was in, killed Johnny Kidd and the driver's girlfriend. Nick Simper survived with minor injuries ( for once a rocker survived near death, but hold that thought till later )
Jon Lord was another founding member of Deep Purple. He came from a band called "the Artwoods", oddly enough fronted by a guy named Art Wood. Even better, he is Ronnie Wood's brother! ( Ronnie Wood, of The Jeff Beck Group, the Faces and some punters called "the Rolling Stones" )
And while we briefly scurry by the Rolling Stones camp, the Artwoods actually had a guy named Keef. "Keef" is of course Keith Richards nick-name. Keef Hartley went on to form his own band imaginatively called...wait for it...The Keef Hartley Band. The band would go on to an interesting place in history by being the first British band to play at Woodstock.
Other founding fathers were drummer Ian Paice ( recruited into the band ) and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Ritchie contributed the name Deep Purple, saying that it was his grandmothers favorite song.
At this writing in February of 2012, Deep Purple, the band that launched the song "Smoke on the Water" is NOT in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Oh yeah, the Keef Hartley guy...he got a job back in the old days with a band called Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. How did he get the gig?...Well the drummer they had, quit to go a play for another band. You might have heard of him, a Liverpool Englishman named, Ringo Starr.
After writing "From Turtle to Zappa"...and discovering that Frank Zappa's father worked for the U.S. military at a chemical warfare installation ( he was a chemist and mathematician ) And reading the disturbing fact that young Frank's sinusitis was treated by placing pellets of radium up his nose !!!! ....
I decided to go hunting for other rock and rollers that had military dads.
The most obvious one for me was Jim Morrison of the Doors. Oddly, before they hit it big in their native Los Angeles....the Doors were the opening act for The Turtles....anyways, I digress. Jim and his dad didn't see eye to eye on Jim's lifestyle, music, lyrics and whatever else there was to argue over. Jim went on to immense fame and fortune, mixed with immense alcohol and drug problems, blended with being ever so slightly unhinged to begin with. Jim died right on cue at 27 yrs old....the age when a lot of rockers seem to hit the check out button. Jim's dad went on to become Rear Admiral George Stephen Morrison, and decades after Jim's death, he finally admitted that his wayward rock-star son had made a great contribution to the world of music.
The List .. All three founding members of the band "America" Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek...all had American dads and British mothers.
John Denver ( real name Deutschendorf )
Kris Kristofferson ...his dad was an Air Force Major General and his granddad was an officer in the Swedish Army
Annie Leibovitz ..rock and roll photographer. Father Lieutenant Colonel, US Air Force
Stephen Stills ( Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young ) His dad was posted to such places as Costa Rica, Panama Canal Zone and El Salvador when Stephen was kid.
Christina Aguilera...apparently the dad/daughter relationship wasn't so good
Jackson Browne...singer/songwriter Jackson was born in Heidelberg, Germany ...where his father was stationed.
Newt Gingrich...not a rocker...but a legendary dipshit
Timothy Leary "Acid guru" of the 60's...his dad was a dentist...but pressured Timothy into attending West Point Military Academy. Do you want me to tell you how that worked out?
Julianne Moore is not a rocker...but who really cares? She's hot. Her dad was a military lawyer, judge and helicopter pilot ( slacker )
Dee Dee Ramone ( born Colvin ) bassist and song writer for the Ramones
Lionel Ritchie...got through school on a tennis scholarship and majored in Economics
Michael Stipe of R.E.M.
Bruce Willis ....Actor ( hangs out with rock stars ) his dad left the military in 1957. Bruce worked as a security guard at a nuclear plant and later as a private detective. He had a bad stutter in high school.
Emmylou Harris...country girl...her dad was a prisoner of war in Korea for ten months.
Heather Locklear...major babe...has given comfort to many rock and rollers including Richie Sambora and Tommy Lee ( Robo-penis )
Papa John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas....his dad was a Marine corps officer and his mom was a Cherokee.
Anne and Nancy Wilson of Heart...dad was a Marine.
Hoyt Axton his dad was in the Navy. His mom co-wrote the Elvis Presley hit "Heartbreak Hotel" Hoyt was in the Navy himself...after he got out he wrote "Never Been to Spain" and "Joy to the World" for Three Dog Night. He also wrote for Steppenwolf and Ringo Starr.
Bill Cosby....Comedy rocker...his dad was a Navy man...WW2.
Robert Duvall...what is more rock and roll than "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" His mother was related to General Robert E Lee and his dad was a U.S. Navy Admiral
Lou Diamond Phillips ...played Ritchie Valens in the movie La Bamba...he was named after Lou Diamond...a famous Marine
Michael J Fox....his dad was a police officer and also in the Military. Michael actually learned how to play Johnny B Goode after having Parkinsons for years.
Bob Marley...of all people!! his pop was a Captain in the British Royal Marines...put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Elton John...his dad was in the Royal Air Force
Rick Springfield...his dad was in the Australian military
