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NEWS photo Terry Peters

>: PULLING into Broadway Station, passengers prepare to board the multi-million dollar SkyTrain, , which | had its one millionth

_ customer climb aboard Friday.

SK YTRA Ld con TRA cTs

SKYTRAIN. ‘construction: “contracts. were awatded
world-wide to: companies with first-class. ‘track: re-

orth: Vancouver's

Western Pacific Enterprises
Ltd. was among them.

The local firm won the ,
$1.1 million contract for in-
_ Stalling the. system’s power
and control cables, and as a
‘result ‘of that contract, the
company netted an addi-
tional $2 million _ contract
with SkyTrain. o
- The new ‘contract. had the .
Jocal company run fibre op-
‘tic. cables “forthe closed-
circuit television system that

“runs from the maintenance

centre the
system: .

Project superintendent

throughout

David” Fettback said the
nine-months of work
employed about 40 of the
company’s workers. :
INNOVATION |
- “Although the . company
has vast experience in elec-
tric wiring, .with previous

jobs being ICBC, BC Rail

and the Marine Training In-
stitute: in North Vancouver,
Fettback said the long cables
of about 1,500 metres. pres-
ented an interesting
challenge.

“'SKYTRAIN whisks ‘away along its 22 kilometre electric track
from Broadway Station in Vancouver to Burnaby and New

‘ Westminster.

and

* government

“Kt took a lot: of innova- ,

tion pulling the long runs,’’
Fettback said. “In most in-
stances we’re* not used to

‘pulling cables more than a

couple of hundred metres.’
But Fettback added that it
took less time per metre
when the cables were in one
long length, so, based on
man hours, the company
was able to bid the most
competitive price.

*:Fettback said his company
profitted well. from the con-
tracts, but he added that the
original $1.1 million job
would have been ‘a tight

job’ without the further con-

tracts. .
“A lot of: contractors
didn’t. make any -money

because of unforeseen pro- -

blems,’’. Fettback said. ‘‘It
was a condensed schedule,
there were logistical
problems getting that many

-, Men up on the Buideway.”’

LITTLE PROFIT |

North Vancouver-
Seymour MLA Jack
Davis, who chaired the
SkyTrain steering committee
and was the previous
Minister of Transport, also
agreed that the companies
with SkyTrain contracts
made little if any profit on
the project.

Referring to 1980, when
the contracts were being
hammered out, Davis said,
“Construction was flat and
companies were hungry for
business. They laid off their
less than perfect workers and

.vid voraciously one against

another.”’

He said as a result the
got “a good
product at a good price.”

*‘We came in under
budget,’’ Davis said of the
$854 million budget allotted
for SkyTrain construction.
“It was under $800 million.
The government would
probably never say much
about this though, because it
used the remaining. money
for the training and
operating of SkyTrain.”’

SkyTrain construction was
completed by mid-1985,-
leaving six months to run the

_trains before its official Jan.,

1 opening, Davis said.

But a section of SkyTrain
was pre-built in 1981, Davis
said, to experiment with the
untried system.

The provincial gov-
ernment was criticized for

DAVID FETTBACK

taking SkyTrain on, Davis
said, because it was untried
— anew system. 4

But Davis assured: “We
bought the system because
the Ontario. government
guaranteed it. We have a
contract with the Urban
Transport Development
Corporation that we don’t
take the system until it meets
every spec — until the trains
are running, maintained and
the blips are eliminated.”

DESIGN PROBLEMS

The greatest local design
problems construction.
workers had to deal with in:
building SkyTrain, Davis’,
said, included putting in the {
foundations and improving
the Dunsmuir Tunnel, the
one area of the elevated
track that goes underground.

Davis said accommoaating
the elevated track to the
geographical complexities of
Vancouver, such as building
across False Creek, was
challenging.

And improving: the
Dunsmuir Tunnel, an. old
CPR tunnel, from the leaks
it had sprung was another

big job, Davis said.

3 - Sunday, January 26, 1986°- North Shore News