Drill Bits and Dynamite ....Part Seventeen

Here's a quicky blog post...just to tell a story about a set of photos from one day, one minor event on the Sea to Sky highway project.

After drilling of a round of blast holes, the operator of a Tamrock Ranger 800 rock-drill was moving to a new location. The pathway to and from the drill site was really nothing more than an unimproved goat trail, high above the main access road. At one point the driller felt the road give way on his blind side..and the machine leaned over. The driller stopped the machine and got out to check his situation.

It wasn't a nasty situation...but it had all the makings of one. The operator could have said nothing and tried to wiggle his way out of the predicament. Instead, he called out and asked for another opinion.
It was decided that the safest thing to do was to put a heavy duty tow line from the drill to a large excavator to pull the drill away from the edge. Also because the 385 excavator was close by, we decided to use that to support the underside of the rig to prevent a rollover in the event that the road collapsed even more.

It took the cooperation of several crews and operators...and a little bit of lost production time, but the result was positive. The extra steps ensured the total safety of the operator and the 600,000 + dollar drill rig. 

It doesn't look too bad here....but the drill rig is very heavy...and a bit top heavy

Waiting for the excavator that will do the pulling

This is a better photo of the situation....soft ground....and a long ways to roll if it goes over

Waiting for the tow cable and extra hoe

Driller/blaster Mike Trufanenko helping out, foreground....Construction boss Mario Plante in behind

That would be an ugly tumble

We used the 385 Hoe to support the low side to guarantee that we wouldn't end up with a roll-over if things went from bad to worse

It was great to have this big machine close by to help out

Randy Coward on the pulling Hoe, 385 operator Wayne Tyson and construction boss Mario Plante

The setup that got it done...the hoe on top at the right will pull with a large steel cable....the 385 hoe underneath supports the bottom side

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a photo from Cut 9 that can be found elsewhere in the blog...I'm putting it here to show where these drillers have to go to get their job done.

The early days of Cut9....blasting the pioneering road in to gain access...at this point here it is almost exactly 100 meters down to the Squamish highway