Great to see my old job on tape. I worked on the St Clair tunnel project as a Senior Inspector of Works for the year off Tunnel Boring Machine mining, part of the international supervision team of Hatch-Mott McDonald a Canadian British consultancy group. This was an interesting project as the tunnel line went under the Imperial Oil testing laboratory and with all the delicate instruments inside the building could not suffer any settlement. The build was jacked up so any settlement would be in a controlled manner back to original level. The TBM could mine under the building but then started to develop cutter head bearing problems. So an interlocking pile block mass was constructed and then the centre was drilled out to form a shaft. The Lovat TBM drove into the shaft and the cutter head was removed, cut in half and transported to Lovats Toronto base for repairs. The bearing face of the leading section was refaced insitu. Once the cutter head was refitted the TBM proceeded under the river with out further incident. I made a good friend while in Sarnia and he worked the rail ferry, it was ironic that I was going to do him out of a job. BS
Great to see my old job on tape.
I worked on the St Clair tunnel project as a Senior Inspector of Works for the year off Tunnel Boring Machine mining, part of the international supervision team of Hatch-Mott McDonald a Canadian British consultancy group.
This was an interesting project as the tunnel line went under the Imperial Oil testing laboratory and with all the delicate instruments inside the building could not suffer any settlement. The build was jacked up so any settlement would be in a controlled manner back to original level. The TBM could mine under the building but then started to develop cutter head bearing problems. So an interlocking pile block mass was constructed and then the centre was drilled out to form a shaft. The Lovat TBM drove into the shaft and the cutter head was removed, cut in half and transported to Lovats Toronto base for repairs. The bearing face of the leading section was refaced insitu. Once the cutter head was refitted the TBM proceeded under the river with out further incident.
I made a good friend while in Sarnia and he worked the rail ferry, it was ironic that I was going to do him out of a job.
BS
That was a good video. Great times back then in Sarnia.
Just saw this video I'm a rail fan from Boston mass area and I was there in 2004 pretty nice tunnel.
Adding insult to injury for the river barges to carry parts of the TBM which would ultimately lead to their demise. Sad and ironic.
I remember when Excalibur got stuck at Imperial Oil in Sarnia and they had to drill through the ground on their site to get at it.
The synth music at 1:58 was also used on the shutdown sequence for Radio Taiwan shortwave broadcasts.
Lol the theme music on the opening I was expecting Superman to come fly into it LMAO
Impressive!! 👍
Was there an old tunnel?
yes
Just to the left it’s abandoned and has my curiosity goin
There is a good pic of the port Huron side in "port Huron history #99" by Bob Davis
yes, there was a smaller tunnel built in 1891.