Installation of the amphibian tunnel in Ryder Lake is progressing well!  The fabulous team from Lafarge Canada Ltd. spent day 1 excavating out the road and prepping the site for the culvert installation.  Day 2 started with more site preparation before the very heavy concrete culvert sections started to arrive from Langley Concrete.  In order to span the road, 5 concrete culvert sections were required.  These culvert pieces are too heavy to be moved by an excavator therefore a crane truck was brought in to move the pieces.  An excavator was used to help piece the sections together.  After all 5 pieces were painstakingly pieced together, with some very creative maneuvering, then the excavator started to back-fill the culverts with gravel.  By back-filling part of the culvert with gravel we are reducing how far down the amphibians have to climb to use the crossing structure.  Day 3, tomorrow, will be spent installing the risers for the storm drain “windows” which will allow air movement and moisture into the crossing structure.  We will also be prepping the ends of the culvert for installation of amphibian fencing to help direct amphibians to the crossing structure.  Check back for more updates!

Excavating the site.

Prepping site for culvert.

Culvert sections arrive from Langley Concrete

Using the crane truck to move culvert sections into place.

Maneuvering culvert sections into place using crane and excavator.

Many loads of road base and gravel were trucked to the site.

Gravel was spread by hand in the culvert – thanks Dan!

Culvert sections in place and ready for day 3.