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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