Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

A new photo disc unearthed...more images to post. The Sea to Sky Highway project, Segment One in West Vancouver. The stories and pics from the very beginning of these job-sites are posted in earlier entries. Standing in the middle of Cut 4...looking to the Northwest towards Cut 5 Portable crusher set-up at Cut 4 Loading blast rock from Cut 4....the material is getting trucked to a fill site on the job The machine in behind the loading hoe, has a hydraulic rock  breaking attachment for reducing the over-size rocks down to a usable diameter 6x6 rock truck leaving the Cut4 loading area Tamrock Ranger 800 rock drill on top of Cut 5 Aerial view of a tire changing operation in Cut 4 Looking Southeast towards Cut 4 Ranger 800 rock drills on top of Cut 5, in the early part of that job Ranger drills on top of Cut 5

A new photo disc uncovered, and new images to share. This is the Sea to Sky highway project, West Vancouver section, Segment One. As mentioned in the previous post, the South Interchange was very challenging for the planners and contractors. Many traffic lane pushes and detours were required to get the work done while simultaneously maintaining regular vehicle flows. This is where traffic will be split between Whistler resort bound, and ferry traffic to Horseshoe Bay. Our blasting crew worked on the rough prep and then worked along side the construction crews to do the up close and personal detail work. This would be controlled blasting with mat covered shots, close to footings and walls. Cut 4 looking towards the South interchange Nelson Creek Bridge and little known railroad tunnel below...the South interchange is to the left. All traffic pushed over, as construction of over-pass structure gets built Original lanes deleted...operational lanes pushed over Foot...

This will be mostly photos from various stages of construction of the South Interchange on Segment 1 of the Sea to Sky project. Because traffic needed to keep moving while the new sections of highway were built, temporary lanes were shifted back and forth to allow the contractor to do the required work. A section of road or concrete structure would get built in the area where traffic was moved from. When that was done, the traffic was moved over again to allow another part to be constructed. This required a lot of planning and teamwork to keep things on schedule. This was the first time that I had worked so close to a very major highway. The drivers rushing to the ferries at Horseshoe bay, or zooming up to Whistler created new dangers that I had not encountered before. It soon was apparent that keeping myself and everyone else safe was going to be a full time job. We had people cursing at us from their cars, women yelling at us for harming Mother Nature, drunks coming into lane closur...