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00:05this time on highway through hell a split semi hold on hold on hold on has reliable in a trailer
00:15slam down hang on team aggressive stands back don't go under that pipe under a touchy load
00:23and a perilous storm has out how are you doing tonight sending off an old friend he's off into the
00:33sunset
00:42on british columbia's coquihola highway
00:52freezing conditions create havoc on the roads choking off access to the town of merit
01:15minutes out and reliable's heaviest record tonight we're going off highway 5 his lead operator andy
01:24column I try to bring professionalism to a reliable team and teach these guys that are up-and-comers to
01:31think before they do I was pretty backed up here rolling up to the scene we got a tractor facing
01:43the
01:43wrong way in the ditch and a very heavy trailer blocking with the slow lane so we need to get
01:51this out of the way we gotta get traffic control here heading downhill into merit the semi changed lanes
02:02jackknifing around and detaching at the kingpin when it hit the shoulder that's ugly the 50 000 pound
02:13trailer is crammed full of cardboard biggest hazard here there's live traffic coming down that hill there's
02:22really little room to work around why is that still in there which tractor also on scene with a one
02:30ton
02:32so i actually pulled out can i try the son of reliable towing's owners aiden mange andy has
02:39recognized that we need to bring up new people into the heavy world pull it out but however you think
02:45you can get it so i think this is aiden's opportunity to learn in a safe manner we're using it
02:53as a chance
02:53to teach aiden what his truck can really do andy's a pretty good coach yeah i'm up for the challenge
03:00with
03:01a strap to the rear wheel it's the 19 year old's biggest wreck with his medium-duty one ton i
03:10have a
03:10little bit of doubt on the weight of my truck but i don't have a doubt on the pulling power
03:16of it so
03:17we'll see how it goes pretty heavy aiden's truck is under load here level yourself a little lean is okay
03:32and a lot of lean isn't too heavy for me hold on hold on hold on
03:59you see what's going on up there or no on the coquihalla seven kilometers outside merit
04:09traffic is squeezed down to one lane too heavy for me as aiden fights for leverage
04:18it's a light-duty truck with a medium-duty record
04:21put it down put it down but it's still one ton so it's a little complicated free wheel it and
04:30get
04:30your truck more this way acting on andy's advice aiden repositions
04:39run the snatch block through this
04:44aiden's gonna learn a little more of what his truck can do today
04:47can you get your right line in hopefully he uses that to his advantage
04:54boom up boom up boom up some and with an added line to its front wheel
05:00a little more a little more yeah you have to work your winches
05:07keep it steady aiden starts to get it keep going if you can
05:13if you get a chance to train young guys how to do things hopefully
05:17they pass that knowledge on there it comes
05:23can't hold on it's gonna have to rehook
05:29he needs to make space between wreck and wrecker
05:36that's good but as he tries again pull it the rest of the way out let's go
05:42aiden and his medium-duty one ton you do have a fight being in a small truck
05:49may not be enough you just got to make up with it with leverage
05:55for the 20 000 pound tractor
06:02keep going
06:05pulling me back it's definitely pushing my truck
06:12it's not good it's great
06:18hey aiden watch your live lane hey you're sliding into it
06:23you're almost out of room
06:49that will crush a car let alone a
06:53person constable scott mcclure with the abbotsford police
06:58this could have been a fatal accident waiting to happen
07:01attends a semi with a load of leaning pipes that are threatening to let go
07:08when these guys hit this round about everything started to shift essentially caused this guy to tip
07:15a little bit sticking out
07:17the fact that he recognized that his load had shifted and pulled the side of the road
07:21potentially could have saved somebody's life
07:25called to the scene a 50-ton aggressive rotator
07:30coming in hot with chris mervin this is not raining and jaden dick
07:35no definitely a public safety aspect of it there's a lot of foot traffic and with this load leaning
07:42towards the sidewalk it's obviously a hazard
07:48that's gonna weigh a lot
07:51arriving on site
07:54merv and jaden stand back from the 15 000 pound pipes
08:00it's leaning pretty good
08:03that's probably not something you want to get hit by or walk under for sure
08:06i'll turn you into a human pancake real quick
08:09let's watch these trucks dude yeah the traffic's still moving you could have pipe roll away and
08:17injure somebody some works of art are leaning like the leaning tower of pizza this is the leaning tower
08:23of pizza if we do it here we're going to shut down taking charge of traffic is sergeant paul walker
08:31if it's the safest thing let me do it we're closing off the road because of safety you know i
08:36have
08:37confidence in merv's ability of confidence the first responders here but as you can see we have
08:41a large steel pipe and if that breaks free we're going to have a disaster in our hands
08:50with his workspace cleared
08:54merv takes advantage of a vacant driveway
09:00you're gonna pull forward nice and slow
09:02okay and calls on the driver to line up nice and gentle watch this pull
09:13right under his rotator's boom
09:19just start slowly nudging the load back to where it was and then reset everything and jump up there jaden
09:27the tail end of the 40-foot pipes is secured down with chains
09:35so we'll go between the first and the second there yeah
09:39so jayden that's going to be the scary part can reach in with the rigging pretty dangerous we don't
09:47want to get crushed working around it so we got to be careful of what the pipe's doing and how
09:51it's
09:51reacting hold that strap tight so it can't pull through with the strap threaded between the rows
10:00the rotator will lift and shift the top pipes until they're squared with the bottom
10:09i'll pick up a little bit here jaden
10:15if i'm shifting the front of the load
10:17i don't want the back to shift in the opposite direction
10:25it'll put us all in danger at that point
10:29don't go under that pipe
10:37the road is closed in the fraser valley
10:42don't go under that pipe team aggressive performs a balancing act at the heavy left with a load
10:55of precarious pipes check those back four straps and you got these big pipes and they're leaning
11:02off the side of the trailer it's a dangerous place to be make sure they stay under tension the whole
11:08time
11:10that's what we're going to do
11:11beauty
11:13at 15 000 pounds a piece can you jump up we'll see if we can get that dunnage out
11:19the pipes have already crushed their wooden supports well this dunnage turned into toothpicks
11:27so it's no longer useful for holding up the load okay
11:32while merv lifts to center the front end hey grab that good dunnage jade jaden inserts fresh beams
11:41to bolster the load we'll chain this in place before i let it go then
11:4950 so far merv yeah i'm gonna set it down releases his hold to move on to the rear
12:00you kind of tense up
12:05it's unsupported so don't go underneath it and you just hope nothing moves
12:12the driver must now pull ahead to align the rear with the boom
12:17lord and do your right of it
12:20careful not to disturb the unstable load there is a point in there where
12:26you definitely are holding your breath
12:31yeah you're good jaden climbs up to re-thread the strap on the rear beauty buddy
12:43we gotta get that dunnage out as the last of the broken wood is removed
12:49and merv delicately pulls the pipes back over pay attention keep your wits about you go slow
13:01hey if you stop there i should be able to get
13:03dunnage in that midsection let's do it jaden slides in his new supports you're good
13:11and the pipes
13:16fall into place okay let's snug up them straps on that side
13:24better than it was
13:28yeah buddy ain't going nowhere now
13:32definitely impressed with how this load shift went
13:35merv did really good on the controls tomorrow they'll have the opportunity to properly secure
13:40them in place and then get this driver back on his way to alberta
13:44i mean it looks a hundred times better now i always love getting the job done
13:49getting the road back open is a big priority and doing it safely is just as big also
13:55all done buddy yay merv signs off with the abbotsford police they gotta shove the bottom stack over a bit
14:03but i don't want to start messing with that here no no we'll let them do that in the yard
14:07yeah that's
14:07what i figure yeah this first responders we rely on our tow truck drivers heavily
14:14merv he knows what he's doing and he's done most of this before with the load balanced there we go
14:22the driver can get off the road traffic is flowing we saved today yeah
14:29and the busy route to the airport is back open thanks for coming out it's always a good time
14:39team aggressive for the win again come next time
14:43yeah two hours to the northeast aiden's heavy recovery lesson
14:56look how deep i'm done with an undersized record
15:03hey watch your live lane hey you're sliding into it
15:07is going sideways you definitely got to be dialed
15:11and definitely have to listen to others spades up pull ahead do it again quickly
15:17one more you got her andy has aiden steer away from moving traffic
15:24right there and coaches him to make full use of his one tons winching power
15:32short high pulls get this done with his record he's gonna have to pull the right way
15:40to help guide it out
15:46there it comes under his mentor's watchful eye
15:52almost there keep going aiden hey you're good you got out passes the test that's awesome
16:03pretty happy with it i mean these trucks can do a lot good rig good rig
16:09when you're learning
16:12the best way is to do it and once they even gets that inner confidence
16:18he can do anything i think we did a good job with this one i've learned a lot and gained
16:26some more
16:26skills i'd like to get in the heavy eventually but for now i'm enjoying the light duty
16:34we gotta get this way off the road but the big job goes to the man in charge
16:40and did good pulling out this tractor time to deal with the trailer let me go further up through
16:50this trailer is really heavy the wall's already tearing the torn open trailer will need to have
16:57its cardboard unloaded before it can be removed
17:03see here if we can get on that line it's clear of his lane so we're gonna get it into
17:09the ditch for now
17:11maybe go through the hole helping to speed things along
17:16reliable's merit manager nishan mahal
17:19we're just trying to open up another lane of traffic we need to get this highway open it's such
17:24a vital route you're down to one main there for a while with a single line to the trailer's rear
17:33andy starts winching
17:36so that other five feet the icy surface is hopefully going to help here by letting the trailer slide
17:44into the ditch a little easier it's going in slowly but trailers are like pop cans but if you put
17:52weight
17:52on it it'll crush super easy you got four inches the trailer finally clears the lane i think it's as
18:01good
18:01as it's gonna get
18:05it will be left here for the offload crew in the morning
18:10we got this as far off the road as i can get it for tonight a little more there you
18:15go we're gonna
18:17take the tractor and get out of here and deal with it tomorrow yeah you're good
18:26this is going to the merit yard for now the reopening of highway five into merit
18:33kind of nice to be moving counts as a win real proud of the team tonight we all came together
18:40as team reliable now we're going to call tonight plans their return in the daylight
18:48there's still one in the ditch
18:54it's gonna be an exciting day there boys on highway five heading into merit
19:04a crew starts a massive offload on a trailer filled with cardboard left behind from last
19:12night's recovery hours later the reliable 50-ton heavy hornet rolls in and he's too tired
19:30he had a long day yesterday with operator dalen golish behind the wheel it's my turn for the trailer
19:38i've heard it's pretty compromised job now is just to get the trailer on its wheels and get it to
19:44merit oh my what a mess after eight hours of unloading that's a lot of cardboard hi bill
19:56hey there you are bill bremner's salvage team have the trailer empty
20:03go go go all done cardboard's done watch your step
20:13yesterday the icy conditions caused the trailer to break loose tipping and tearing open as it crashed
20:25so we got significant damage to the trailer front wall is tore up the roof is tore off they can
20:32kind of
20:32cut the trailer just ahead of center dalen and his flat deck driver have a plan and then work our
20:39way
20:39through this hard wood floor yeah to remove the trailer in pieces looks like oak or something right yeah
20:48yeah we got that chop saw then yeah because the trailer is so compromised we have to cut off a
20:55portion of it and get it all the way but in order to break the unit down i gotta go
21:02up on this top wall
21:04here dalen will need to climb up onto the flimsy structure it's kind of like a house of cards
21:12when you blow on it it all falls over this is the house of cards it's up we go and
21:19he'll have to cut
21:20the deck all right thank you squishy up here standing eight and a half feet above frozen ground
21:32running a chop saw to cut the trailer there's a risk for sure
21:42okay back to the bottom let me cut this last frame here
21:51we're gonna score the floor with the saw
21:56let the machine break it in half here he comes
22:06perfect bill and his eight-ton salvage excavator
22:11watch nothing snaps back at you have had their share yeah bring her down buddy of breaking down
22:18tractor trailers on the side of the highway
22:25the front section we're gonna fold up our house of cards where's the cut mark
22:31right there okay stand clear
22:37with dalen's cuts in place you get to have all the fun bill yeah
22:44the walls come falling down you've done this before once or twice
22:58i think break the floor
23:05oh hang on but tonight the mini excavator is meeting its match
23:12it's not letting go no in the 53 foot hardwood floor i'll set up to roll it dalen shifts gears
23:27just pick that end up and then just kind of gift wrap it hey coming out
23:36with its boom over the top and the strap tradling the bottom the 50 ton will reverse roll the trailer
23:44back onto its wheels making it easier for the excavator to dismantle
23:52she should lift right up for us
23:56i'm hoping it comes up on its wheels
24:01our space is limited there's a steep bank with a real short ditch and an active lane of traffic
24:09there's not a lot of room to work with
24:15we're going for it
24:22it's either going to come up on its wheels or it's going to fold over
24:27the last thing we want to do is have debris fly into the active lane of traffic
24:33come on the trailer
24:39i'll take that
24:41lands on its wheels
24:43you know what it came over pretty good
24:47so you want to go ahead and hook up yeah you see where the chain is on the bumper there
24:51you know that but he needs to tug it a few more feet okay
24:57you want to be pretty well even with it
25:00yeah so it swings more than pulls right yeah
25:04without it falling back over
25:08there we go
25:13hey nice good work
25:16so we've got it on flat ground now we got to get that front end tore up
25:24she said fold up nice now
25:26it's with the trailer on its wheels hopefully when the excavator pushes down it'll break much easier
25:37come on
25:38come on
25:41there it goes
25:44the final wall collapses
25:46nice
25:47yeah that's beauty
25:51all that remains is the last floor piece
26:01there we go
26:02that might do her
26:07the freaking wood
26:10oftentimes the machine can just break the wood
26:13it's got it from there's nothing left
26:17but even with the upright leverage
26:20i don't know why it's doing what it's doing usually it breaks real easy
26:25the hard oak floor refuses to submit
26:31keep an eye here come on look at this doesn't even seem to be folding there
26:38how's the cards strong
26:43unbelievable
26:46they're just cleaning up the mess
26:48five minutes south of merit
26:50just the bending is unbelievable
26:53reliable is locked in an arm wrestle
26:57i should have broke that
26:59with a trailer that won't bend
27:04it's thick hard wood
27:07bill's having trouble breaking it in half
27:09i'm going in there with a chop suck
27:11in a last ditch effort
27:13we're gonna jump up and score one more time
27:18dalen saws back into the floor
27:21get the line a little deeper
27:25it should help for a little excavator out
27:28okay off we go
27:35well it's more flexible
27:39should be the final pull here it should snap
27:43hopefully taking the end for maximum leverage
27:48it's creaking
27:50the excavator
27:52there it is
27:55finally wins the match
28:00success
28:03trailer's broken in half
28:06so now we can get everything packaged up and sent away
28:11the broken sections
28:13okay
28:15are taken away by the flat deck
28:17beautiful
28:19i'm gonna give this a rotation
28:22but the remainder of the trailer
28:24is still towable
28:26having the mini excavator there it's a really capable tool
28:30yeah maybe leave it there bill
28:33one more assist from bill's machine
28:37and hornet backs in to bring it home
28:44looks like we're there
28:46another recovery in the books
28:48are you good to go
28:49i'm ready
28:49it's always a team effort
28:51i couldn't do it without dispatchers and helpers and swampers
28:54well bill it was good working with you appreciate the help
28:57you too i hope we do it again soon
29:00one of the things you hear about a lot now is that people don't really want to work hard and
29:04some people are built to be working hard
29:08our whole crew is like that
29:10they all want to work together so that we can meet any challenge that comes our way
29:16oh what a day
29:19you know reliable
29:41what's the word on the coke
29:43the next day
29:45forgetting lots of snow
29:4860 kilometers south
29:51at the summit of the cocahola
29:53yeah it's pretty big
30:00crews prepare for a severe winter storm
30:06we're expecting to see 15 centimeters of snow
30:10battle ready at the zoptius brake check
30:13and potentially another 15 centimeters into the evening
30:17ministry of transport road manager tom agar
30:22it's wet it's foggy it's in the air it's coming
30:26snow shed protocols in effect we'll see what happens
30:31protocol was activated by our highway maintenance contractor
30:35and i'm here for when the madness takes place
30:40snow shed protocol calls for all highway partners to be equipped and on hand
30:49it's in real bad shape out there including veteran tow operator
30:53al quiring when they see the big clouds coming in off the pacific ocean and cold weather coming from
30:59alaska they are prepared with extra plows you know the tow truck is there the cbsc is there to enforce
31:07the chain up area
31:11you guys are going to be getting down here
31:13coming up to lead the operation
31:16if you don't love snow then you don't want to come up yet
31:18highways maintenance supervisor
31:21curtis brown how we prepare for a protocol is by bringing an extra crew
31:28getting our trucks graders loaders blowers ready
31:32been working on the highway for 14 years
31:35i've gone through a lot of really good times and hard times up here and
31:40worked with some amazing people
31:48i'm leaving my position as a superintendent for the cocahalla
31:58time for a change of pace in life but it's going to be hard
32:07at the top of the hill
32:09we keep those headlights clean in case we get called into action
32:14al and his green 50 ton are ready to roll
32:19i'm ready to go in like four different directions at any time should the need arise
32:26i'm sharing uh curtis's last shift with them so i'm hoping uh goodwill for curtis tonight
32:34i've been working with al up here since my first storm and now my last storm
32:38al's uh been there every time i've needed him
32:43as dust falls the weather worsens and the brothers in arms
32:52have one last check-in before battle
32:57curtis
32:58yeah how are you doing tonight how are you very good
33:02what's the forecast uh 15 centimeters uh mainly before midnight then it'll slow down
33:08yeah it's your last ship so hopefully yeah hopefully it's calm wouldn't mind a little action for the
33:15last one you know something to go home with yeah it's hard because unless you've chewed through those
33:24tough storms and dangerous situations together you'll never understand the camaraderie that goes with that
33:31right i'll let you do your patrols and if i don't see you later i hope you don't lose my
33:38number never
33:39will man he's going to be gone from that now he's off into the sunset
33:46but curtis's last shift of protocol is just getting started it's going to be super busy up here
33:59it's like having a war against the cell phone event we want to do the best job we can out
34:05there
34:06and we're trying to beat it and sometimes it beats us
34:12yeah that's going to get out wait
34:19we've got a convoy of snow plows going up on the coquahola highway
34:29a storm slams the notorious snowshed hill that one spun out on the hill
34:40and curtis sorry that was too spun out yeah that's right charges into his final shift on
34:52a day like this on the coquahola give me that damn a year everybody freaks out again there's a
34:57lot of little things you need to know or else things go wrong as midnight draws near
35:07the snowfall is unrelenting if we don't do anything about that we'll have accidents we'll
35:14have issues out there hey tom uh it doesn't look like it's gonna let up i'll get the lights on
35:20right
35:20now curtis yeah i'd probably guess that'd be a good idea here pulls the trigger on a mandatory
35:29slowdown for truck drivers chain up lights are on commercial drivers that see that the chain up
35:37lights are on and choose not to chain up they'll spin out and have to get towed or it might
35:45cause us
35:46further issues on the hill but halfway up the hill yeah he's definitely struggling
35:54a transport has snuck through on bare tires now he's spinning out weighed down by 100 000 pounds
36:03of plywood hey bud when i cross there's no sign of the chain yeah the lights came on probably right
36:10after you passed it i am now putting the chain okay sounds good this guy's gonna throw some chains on
36:15tom
36:18curtis's flashing lights will help warn drivers coming up the hill we're just kind of protecting him
36:25here and watching but until the truck can get going that we don't have any further issues while he chains
36:31up maintenance teams can't clear the granny lane from the heavy snowfall you're not even plowing it or
36:40sanding it do anything they can't get by the truck remember the days it used to be exciting and there'd
36:48be
36:48like spin out after spin out and the hill getting blocked they were fun you're getting pulled up over
36:57the past decade jumping in a plow and do what i can to help get things cleaned up curtis's stewardship
37:04of
37:04the coquihalla absolutely insane and dedication to driver safety i'm sick in here till these truckers
37:12are out has left an impact on the highway there's hundreds and hundreds of people out here working
37:17that will last long after he's gone they've done an amazing job getting the way it is
37:26this job's been demanding and it's gonna be a nice change of pace a lot less stress a lot more
37:34family
37:34time hopefully a whole bunch of fishing but tonight his last night curtis must focus on what's in front of
37:45him i don't think this driver's having the best night hopefully he's able to get going here soon
37:54until the sound of tires spinning from behind catches his ear can we uh stop traffic down that box canyon
38:03and sparks him into action i got a trucker blocking uh the middle fast lane here as soon as you
38:12stop
38:12traffic it takes an enormous amount of effort to clear and get traffic moving
38:19up block and down thank you hey al can i get you back and down here i'll uh pull up
38:25and back down for
38:26that one this being my last protocol you know the conditions are just deteriorating so the last thing
38:32we want is for the hill to be blocked the most eventful night we've had so far this year
38:39that's the danger zone to drive up right now driver
38:45got the full circus up there tonight
38:49minutes from the coquahola summit i got a truck blocking where i'm sitting behind the one that's
38:56been spun out for a while two spun out semis can we uh stop traffic down that box canyon are
39:03blocking
39:04snowshed hill it's just pure backlog of traffic hey bud what's going on okay
39:17curtis's last shift risks falling into chaos he's fully chained up just not enough traction
39:25keeping the highway open that's what the goal is there's a tow truck that's going to be down
39:30here in a few minutes if you can't get going then we'll give you a tug up out of the
39:33way
39:36there we go calling in big green everybody watch that road clear i'm not going to waste time
39:44curtis it's this guy here pulls out the ace up his sleeve i'll take you right to the top at
39:51least
39:51a little excitement for the last night glad character once again al saving the day
39:59hey we're just gonna get off the road here it's not a good spot
40:03al quiring is a machine we have been through everything together and uh he is one of the most
40:11dedicated people to the cocahalla okay let's go i'm gonna get traffic moving down to box canyon right away
40:21give us about three minutes and then you can let the passenger vehicles go and then start letting
40:26tell me to go again on the hook of his 50 tonne vulcan v1 record al pulls the super b
40:34up the hill
40:36the snow never ends
40:40i am sorry to see curtis go and move on i've seen a lot of people get chewed up and
40:47spit out by that
40:48mountain he's made it out of that place alive curtis is doing a good job seen just about everything up
40:55there over the years we've got some good memories together so i won't forget curtis by any means
41:05of course still keeping an eye out for the first driver he's kind of struggling a little bit
41:12curtis ensures that the truck is fully chained is he out
41:19before finally making its way up the hill might have a chance at making it now i'll follow him up
41:24and
41:25make sure he's no longer struggling that was very quick al was able to get down here within two
41:35minutes and five minutes later we got traffic moving at the top curtis is paid a visit by another
41:45comrade on the coke thanks man tom agar you did a good job thank you
41:53me and tom started out here the first winter together there's gonna be some really big shoes
41:59to fill yeah i'm gonna miss the guy everything's just kind of working like clockwork this last
42:06protocol was like a last battle with mother nature working with my operators working with al other tow truck
42:16drivers and cbsc it was very successful with his final shift in the rear view curtis is leaving the
42:28highway in better safer shape than when he started to get the opportunity to maintain the cocahela it was
42:38traumatizing and exciting and it's one of those things that you'll never forget thank you for being out here
42:49next time on highway through hell tough job a herculean lift keep going quick quick
42:56as jamie and jazz one of the bags is out airing up oh
43:01a logging crew's homes hang on rob's hook that's not good and a trailblazing rescue
43:13takes reliable we're on the rock way off road
43:33takes a quick walk we're on the rock way off the road because we can't go out there
43:44next time on highway through hell
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