Tunnel Construction

As part of The Registry’s “Public Works” feature feature for the month of February, 2010, I had the opportunity to descend 650 ft. underground to the excavation site of this bypass tunnel that will eventually serve to transport water to from various reservoirs to San Francisco and the Peninsula. Because the crane is in constant operation delivering supplies down the hole and hoisting the excavated dirt out from the tunnel, the workers stay down in the hole all-day not even coming up for lunch. In order for the workers to get out, the crane must be be reconnected to the elevator. So, for the sake of efficiency, everyone simply stays put so they will not disrupt progress.

I went in as a special circumstance because a geologist also had to go down to test the soil and rock at the drilling site. I had only about 40 minutes to do my thing, which was especially hairy because of the low clearance, muddy ground and constant use of very heavy equipment and machinery that could have chopped off a limb if I wasn’t paying attention. At the end of the day, it was one of my favorite shoots ever. As the photo icon Jim Richardson once said, “If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.”
Indeed.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 12:48 am. It is filed under Galleries and tagged with construction, feature, low-light, San Francisco, The Registry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.