Drill Bits and Dynamite Part Seven...Sea to Sky Cut 9...Big, Bad and Ugly Cut 9
Cut 9, on the Squamish highway project was legendary before we even touched it. Steep, high, covered in trees and pretty much looming over the existing roadway, it was an intimidating sight. Approximately 185,000 to 200,000 cubic meters of rock needed to be removed, while keeping the highway and railroad far below, intact. Cubic meters of rock...to put it into perspective. envision a two story, flat roofed house. 10 meters long ( 33 ft +/- ) and 10 meters wide, 10 meters tall...a cube 10x10x10 meters...that would be 1000 cubic meters. A highway legal dump truck with tandem axles can haul about 8 cubic meters of rock...maybe more maybe less...but let's go with 8. The point being...we had to safely and efficiently remove the equivalent of 200 two story houses, or 25,000 dump truck loads of rock from a ledge that was perched 100 meters above the existing highway. We tried to get loggers in before we started....the heli-loggers wanted the highway closed while they worked...th...