Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot: Drill Bits and Dynamite...Part Eighteen and a Half...More South Interchange

From the Sea to Sky highway improvement project. The quest to upgrade the old Squamish highway in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler. I recently found new images on photo discs that I had squirreled away...haven't been seen in 4-5 years.

The first installment on the South Interchange is here ...
http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2012/02/drill-bits-and-dynamitepart-eighteenthe.html

Installing formwork at the very complex interchange

The active lanes were changed many times as the construction progressed. When work was done in one section, the lanes were pushed over to open up new ground. This done because the traffic had to keep flowing unimpeded while the multi-year job was under way

Bowen Island in the background

Top right is the road down to the Horseshoe Bat ferry terminal. Eagleridge overpass and the dirt road up into Cut 4 and the rest of the overland route ( the only brand new section of the S2S project )

Drilling and blasting work between lanes of active traffic

The truck in the background is on the old "Exit 2"...the old way of leaving the Upper Levels Highway and heading north to Squamish and Whistler

If I remember correctly, that would be Jim, the head carpenter

The rock truck in the background is coming down from Cut 4...and heading onto the highway.

There is a big overpass here now. In the future, the British Properties Company will build a high end development in behind here. This where the blasting crew did one of the riskiest shots on the job...9000 cubic meters in one shot...un-matted..only a short distance from the highway ( we closed it for the shot ) and just over 200 yards to the rich folks subdivision and the mega-houses. I thank my lucky stars everyday, that it went well.