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

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