Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

Larsen Creek Bridge and Cut 6...This is the area that stirred up the  protesters the most. The wetlands and creek that the old hiking path skirted around. I walked the path before we started work on the project. It was easy to see why the locals were upset about plans to run the highway through this lush, tranquil forest... just minutes away from the hustle and bustle of West Vancouver. The project went ahead despite the epic struggle between protesters and the province. The only thing that could be done now, was to not make a huge mess, and do more damage than was totally necessary. Cut 6 was a large rock outcropping directly across from the wetlands. The blasting crew worked very hard to pull the shots away from the sensitive marsh area. Blasters do have reasonable control over the direction that a blast moves in, You need enough room to land a shot though...and we didn't have any extra here. We only had one shot that spilled some rocks over the fence when it all piled up....

 So...in the interest of fairness and telling the other side of the story, I dug up a few Eagleridge Protest/Betty Krawczyk videos. You'll see some of the action at the Bluffs, and hear how the court system dealt with the protesters.  All the workers on the project were given written and verbal instructions to not engage the protesters at any level. We were instructed to stop all operations, call the project manager and wait for an official response. This was the first time that I had seen a protest up close and personal...never mind that it was directed at what I was doing!....This resulted in my curiosity about the passions of protesters...and the photos of anti-Olympics rallies, DTES marches, and the various anti-war/anti-poverty rallies at the Art Gallery. I had a difficult time pulling TV news footage off the web...if any of you can do it...please forward it to me