RMR: Rick at The Niagara Falls Tunnel Project

welcome to Niagara Falls Ontario it is truly one of the most spectacular sights on the continent it is the stuff of legend and while a few souls have gone over these Falls and survived today I go under them 450 feet below the surface in a tunnel where lurks the biggest and most powerful drilling machine on earth and I will drive it one wrong turn that sucker could be bone dry by morning and Here I am standing at the mouth of this really big dig the niagara tunnel project and this is ernst it sir hello ernst how are you nice to meet you and you sir are the project manager and the project manager responsible since the start of this project okay now this is actually the largest infrastructure project that's happening in canada right now correct that's correct Ontario Power Generation project although I don't see any Canada action plans signs right ex-pro because it's not in Tony Clements riding it's not a gazebo this is green power we're building here okay talk to me about when we go through this tunnel we drive all the way down four and fifteen feet under the original surface four hundred and fifty feet below the earth we drive right underneath the city of Niagara Falls understand the Avenue all the way long under steady Stanley across the casino we pass the casino under the wax museum correct bypass the Horseshoe Falls yup and then you do a left turn towards us making sure to not to go too far go we don't want any trouble and then we drive right under the negra river and that's where I Drive the big drill that's where you have a unique chance to to drive me Becky big Becky is that what we call her big Becky is the name of the done blowing machine turning to the center of the earth in a yellow school bus not how I envisioned okay so we've now driven nine and a half kilometers through this tunnel and the lights up ahead that my friends is the back side of big Becky nice parking job all right Alex where we going right right up to the front of the tower to the face of the tunnel that's right so Alex this is the only place you can actually touch the arm supported rock or s is basically yet just in case I haven't made any sense out of this we're now at the front of big Becky the front of big Becky what's the diameter fourteen point four meters in diameter okay it's huge it's a massively powerful machine it drills through the rock the 420 million year old rock and then you guys put up this mesh to keep the rock from falling in then it's all cemented and at the end of the day it's going to be a beautiful smooth culvert and water is gonna gush through here at approximately 600 million miles an hour that's the idea and a whole lot of houses are gonna get electricity else for a hundred years that's right that's pretty amazing okay this is Frank Cooley hello Frank how are you good let me see you sir no really underneath big backing yes so we're going to the cutterhead yes those individual round things those are the those are the cutters they're cutters they do the cutting though so this whole wheel we see that doesn't move does it yes the whole thing school thing spins I see and then the gravel the rock comes through these holes considers holes and there's also collector bends down those down there and also up here on which is a conveyor belt down sonder the conveyor belt this cuts that scoop that must be an ungodly racket is it oh yeah it's crazy yes and vibration or a lot of vibrations well and no one obviously can be anywhere around allowed in here no one's allowed in there right with a chocolate actually the keys too big Becky have to be in here while the men are here so that nobody by accident turns it on all righty let's go start it up well in time jin-tae it's hard to describe what it's like being inside this machine it's like being inside the Death Star it's like it's like we're Darth Vader fought Luke Skywalker where the terminator defeated t1000 it's like it's like a fir and Fort McMurray on a Saturday night well there's more than one Becky at the bottom of this tunnel this is Rebecca cross where the lo Rebecca how are you good thanks yourself what's your job down here I am one of the owners representatives so you're keeping an eye on things yeah pretty much we make sure things are done safely properly according to the design specs water they let us know feed me are you nervous um to be frank yes engage oh it grips on to the wall and then goes forward that's right gotcha phones ringing hello Mission Control hello go ahead okay thank you guy said it we were clear and good to go okay I was you that one's out to go this one running this one running oh now this is moving did I do that yeah that's right I did that and I did that and I did that with that that's right okay so now all the conveyor belts are going now you want to start dialing that in and that's gonna give me the juice yeah that's like the throttle go all the way yeah not all the way but we don't want to go too fast awesome just a little bit of a vibration like the subways coming okay we're we're cooking we're drilling look at the rock look at the rock four meters per hour and I cranked it up a little bit I go a little bit down a little bit more meters is a lot it's for me too okay take her down take her down it rocks it rolls a little bit hey Thank You Marco no prob alrighty this is awesome I hope y'all sit on the right thread oh yeah thank you my friend that a great Dan or Niagara Falls go man come you're watching the Mercer report on CBC

Channel: MercerReport

Views: 169,825

Keywords: RMR, Rick, Mercer, Report, Rick Mercer, Rick Mercer Report, Mercer Report, Niagara Falls, Big Becky, Tunnel, Ontario, CBC, Comedy, Telelvision

Id: y1tT7upP6JE

Length: 6min 34sec (394 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 16 2011