Moving mountains: with side slopes to 80% and rock bluffs galore, gainingaccess to this part of Vancouver Island is not for the faint of heart. It is, however, what the folks at TimberWest Oyster River and A. Wood Bulldozing do every day

Canadian Forest Industries, Nov/Dec 2003 by Tice, Bill

[Graph Not Transcribed]

At TimberWest's Oyster River Operation, road-building crews move mountains to access timber in some of Canada's most rugged terrain. The division is based near Campbell River, BC, on Vancouver Island, and encompasses an area that stretches from the south end of Comox Lake as far north as Campbell River, and from the shores of Johnstone Strait on the Island's east side to the Strathcona Provincial Park boundary to the west.

"On average, we build more than 100 kilometres of road every year," explains Mark McLean, production supervisor for the Oyster River Operation. "Last year we built 120 km, and the year before that, 100 km. We are also estimating that we will complete 120 km, both this year and next year. Much of this is extremely challenging due to the type of terrain we have to deal with, but with a concentrated team effort between the engineers, the company crews and the contract road builders, we get the job done."

One of the toughest projects the operation has faced recently is the building of the "Buttle Bluffs 200 Road." The area known as Buttle Bluffs is southwest of Campbell River and on the east side of Buttle Lake, and is developed by about 25 km of road. The name "Buttle Bluffs 200" refers to the 8 kilometres of main line that is used to access about half of the area's road network, and its 500 000 cubic metres of timber available for harvesting, all on private land.

Fly or Drive?

Areas that can't be accessed by road, or would be too costly to road, are harvested by heli logging techniques, including selective heli logging. To date, Canadian Air Crane, Helifor, and Vancouver Island Helicopters (VIH) have done most of the operation's heli logging. In the case of Buttle Bluffs 200, the roading work was tough, but manageable, a relative concept to be sure in this part of British Columbia.

"We only intend to use the road for a few years," adds Gary Veitch, a forestry engineer with the Oyster River Operation. "The first two kilometres of the road were built a couple of years ago, but we just pushed through the really tough piece last year. Of the 8 km on Buttle Bluffs 200, the 3 km near the front end of the road presented us with a huge challenge due to the steepness. We were dealing with an average side slope of up to 80% in some areas, with lots of rock bluffs."

Other problems facing the Buttle Bluffs 200 road building crew included what to do with the spoil material, and how to keep the road from sliding away. For slopes between 65 and 80%, the answer for TimberWest was a technique called "engineered rock fills." Using this method allowed crews to create a free draining rock fill that is supported on natural or manmade benches situated below the road grade.

[Graph Not Transcribed]

"To maintain stability, it is important that soil and woody debris material be excluded from the rock fill, and that the rock fill be supported on a stable base, which is usually bedrock," explains Alan Chatterton, a geoscientist who works for TimberWest out of its Crofton, BC, office. "Using this technique allowed us to significantly reduce the amount of material excavated to build the road, and allowed us to utilize blast rock on-site so that we did not have to end haul it."

Chatterton notes that compared to similar projects TimberWest has completed at other operations, this type of construction can cost between one third and one half of conventional full bench/end haul construction, although he cautions that rock fills must be built correctly.

"If not built correctly you can end up with fill slope stability problems," Chatterton explains. "This work requires a combination of an experienced construction crew, aggressive supervision and strict control over the materials used in construction."

Key Contractors

Chatterton, McLean, and Veitch, all praise the work of Campbell River-based A. Wood Bulldozing, the contract crew that worked on Buttle Bluffs 200, and especially the skills of hoe operator, Steve Lawrence.

"Steve really made the difference on this project," Chatterton says. "I don't think we could have built this road without his expertise. On other road-building projects, I have seen some individual spots that may have been tougher than on Buttle Bluffs 200, but I have never worked on a road this challenging as a whole."

The A. Wood crew completed all of the work on Buttle Bluffs 200 with the exception of the first half kilometre, which was done by TimberWest's own crews. Lawrence used a Caterpillar 330 excavator for his work, which was supported by a Cat 250D rock truck, a Cat D7 dozer and a Traxon rock drill.

Blasting played a big part in the road construction process and Veitch says they were aided by the fact that much of the rock was very soft.

"The rock broke out very nicely, so we did not end up with a lot of large boulders. This made the material very usable in terms of road building, and helped to minimize end hauling, although spoil sites were still at a huge premium. But, of course, the down-side of having very crumbly rock in really steep country is that you have rock outcrops above the road that create safety concerns."