Monday, August 19, 2013

They built 'em tough in those days . . .


Having dismissed the current housing 'revival' in the previous post, let's pay tribute to those who built - and still build - under much more difficult conditions than most of us could ever dream of.  Vintage Wings of Canada has put up the account of Kelly Bridge, who built an airfield in the Arctic Circle with just three men and a bulldozer back in 1956.  It's a tale of hard work, privation and determination.  Here's an excerpt.

IIOC engaged The Tower Company Ltd. of Montréal, to find a suitable runway location at Hopes Advance Bay. To that end, the Tower Company shipped construction equipment, two prefabricated buildings, food, fuel and supplies from Montréal to Ungava Bay.




Those supplies were offloaded above high water mark at Hopes Advance Bay and stored through the 1955-56 winter for use the following spring and summer. During the summer of 1956, a crew from Montreal would fly in to erect the buildings and construct the runway.

In early June, 1956, I returned for my third summer with the Tower Company and learned of my assignment to build the runway at Hopes Advance Bay. Not a bad deal for an engineering student just turned twenty-one.

In the office, I carefully reviewed the inventory of supplies and equipment offloaded the previous summer at Hopes Advance Bay. Once there the only feasible way to receive additional supplies before completing the runway would be by seaplane. Iffy at best, since Hopes Advance Bay’s thirty foot tide is one of the highest in the world. Landing a float plane on a nearby lake and then hauling a deliveries overland across the tundra on a skid pulled by a bulldozer was possible but impractical.

If we didn’t complete the runway during the summer and early fall, the thawed surface layer of frozen ground (the “active layer”) would refreeze and earth-moving would be impossible. We wouldn’t be able to fly out from the incomplete runway and would be marooned until the nearby lakes froze sufficiently to enable a ski-plane to land on the ice to lift us out. Not a happy prospect.




Summers are short in the sub-Arctic but summer days are long. So, in order to complete the runway before winter returned we worked long hours. Very long hours. This meant selecting an experienced and multi-skilled crew.

Interestingly, I only required a crew of three aside from myself. My cook was also a carpenter. The carpenter and I doubled as electricians. My bulldozer operator, a jack of all trades, knew how to erect the two 20’ by 40’ panelized buildings. As ringmaster, I could drive the dozer, supervise the crew erecting the buildings, set up the generator and wire the buildings.

There's more at the link, as well as many more photographs.  Recommended reading.

I wonder how many 21-year-old engineering students would be prepared to tackle that as a summer job today, particularly serving as jack-of-all-trades and with only three assistants?  Yeah, I know . . .

Peter

4 comments:

Sunnybrook Farm said...

The weather channel had a show on, Ice Pilots and they still fly DC3s and other tough aircraft to those strips in the north. Things haven't changed much in that area.
http://www.icepilots.com/

Anonymous said...

Sunnybrook, Yellowknife is 3,000 miles west of Ungava and warm enough thanks to the Pacific Ocean that it has trees. Ungava has permafrost, the top 3 or 4 feet thaw in summer, below that the ground stays frozen year round. I've been there briefly, also Frobisher Bay and Hall Beach, and the western arctic is a picnic by comparison. They have roads that go south, how sissified can you get?

Regarding your question Peter, there are very few 21 yr olds today who are as capable as this fellow was. The average 21 yr old thinks that no cell phone reception is a deprivation! Imagine one of the pampered products of todays suburbs with no running water, no TV, no internet, no radio and no Starbucks etc....

Al_in_Ottawa

Rolf said...

Love stories like this. It always amazes me to read about what some people did when given the opportunity. OTOH, it saddens me when I see how little others accomplish when given virtually unlimited opportunities. I don't think there is a shortage of chances; I think failure has simply become acceptably comfortable.

Anonymous said...

Just another example of what used to be possible before the advent of modern
union obstructionism and bureaucratic alphabetic protection and regulatory agencies.