By Polly Mikula
Construction has begun with an access road from East Mountain Road up to the water storage tank and is about half completed. Casella Construction Inc. with subcontractor Maine Drilling & Blasting has been working on the first section of its Contract 1-3A for the town of Killington since early December.
The section, from East Mountain Road to the water storage tanks on Shagback Mountain is the highest section. The road is estimated to be complete by the end of March, with water lines in and access to the tanks by May.
By Polly Mikula
Detonation in preparation for the construction of Killington’s municipal waterline.
Skiers and riders at Killington Resort can see the clearing for the water storage tanks (and the road accessing the clearing, if you look carefully) from Skye Peak Quad and Needle’s Eye.
“There are unique views of Bear Mountain, Skye Peak and Pico from the water tank clearing, too,” said Guy Keefe, regional vice president for Maine Drilling & Blasting, who is also a Killington resident and avid skier.
But the site is not accessible to the public at this point as it’s an active construction zone with daily blasting.
Casella was selected for this portion of work last May when they came in with the lowest bid at $18,244,850 for Contract 1-3A.
By Polly Mikkula
Guy Keefe points to blasting holes before the explosion Wednesday, Jan. 31.
The scope includes the well house (behind the Mountain Times building), pump station (on Route 4), and a water line to storage tanks on Shagback Mountain.
Additionally, threeadd-ons were awarded to Casella. The first was for a third well with connection ($161,000), the second for two more turbine pumps at the station on Route 4 ($900,000), and the third for underground power lines to the Wellhouse, ($75,000).
Contingencies in Casella’s bid tacked on $1,080,000. For a total cost of $19,380,850.
By Polly Mikkula
Charlie Wadleigh, Keefe, Elissa Spagnola and Ramsey.
“There was no expectation of Casella working through the winter,” said Killington Town Manager Michael Ramsey, who joined a tour of the site Wednesday, Jan. 31.
However, in order to accomplish the scope of work in the timeframe required, it was necessary to start in the winter, explained Casella Superintendent Charlie Wadleigh. “Every day you lose you never get back. We have to plan to hit the timeline and we know we’ll have weather impacts during the project… forward progress is always better than none,” he said.
There are many challenges to working on a mountain ridge in the middle of winter — on Wednesday crew members could be seen chiseling frozen mud out of the excavator tracks — and a wide range of challenging weather events often limit, delay or prevent progress, “but we work in all sorts of conditions,” Wadleigh and Keefe both noted.
“We try not to work in sub-zero temperatures too much,” Wadleigh added.
Limited daylight during the winter months also truncates safe working hours.
By Polly Mikula
Elissa Spagnola, lead blasting supervisor for Maine Drilling & Blasting, explains how powder inside the yellow line ignites setting off a series of blasts inside drilled holes.
Elissa Spagnola,lead blasting supervisor for Maine Drilling & Blasting, said her day typically begins at 5 a.m. arriving on site in Killington at about 6:30 a.m. It takes all morning for her and the team to plan for one blast daily. Laying out the drill patterns, loading the holes and making the connection between them, setting up the rubber mats (when needed) and the vast array of safety measures undertaken are a huge part of the operation.
Science and experience play a large role in determining the number of holes to be drilled, the depths and diameters of the holes, the pattern of the holes and the spacing between them, which determine the thousandths of a second apart each small explosion is from the one before.
Blasting crew members assemble the priming charges with detonators, load the holes with explosives, stem the holes with crushed stone, and connect each hole within the shot. Sometimes, to prevent rocks from flying, the blaster may cover the site with mats made of recycled tires tightly compressed with steel cable. A 12-foot by 12-foot mat weighs about 6,000 pounds, according to Maine Drilling & Blasting’s website.
Before the blast the shot area is secured from all directions. A horn is sounded three times to mark 5 minutes before detonation and twice to announce the one minute before the blast.
Immediately after, the blasting crew inspects the site to make sure that all the explosives have been properly detonated and a final horn is sounded once to signal that all is clear.
Maine Drilling & Blasting has about eight people on site daily, and Casella has about 10-12.
By Polly Mikkula
Killington Town Manager Michael Ramsey examines the blasting site after the explosion.
Coordination between many teams operating on various sections of the road is also a logistical puzzle, often rendering some “land locked” on the far side of road from where new blasting has occurred or where machinery or vehicles block the one-lane road.
Beginning in April crews will begin working down the mountain from their staging area on East Mountain Road to the high service pump station on Route 4 — a much steeper section.
