To show the complexity and variety of challenges faced by the Apex crews we offer the following short stories:

We delivered three 130-ton transformers to a substation high above Seven Mile Dam. For a variety of reasons the delivery of these transformers was delayed. Each time delivery was delayed we faced new challenges and responded by developing new equipment. We faced steep grades and icy road surfaces. Then with warmer temperatures we faced road restrictions, which we met by placing more wheels under the load. With our hydraulic dollies we were able to pick up an 800-ton dock crane, load it to barge and deliver it to Vancouver Island. With those same dollies we were able to move a 200-foot temporary walkway in one piece at Vancouver Airport to storage so that it could be used again with the next phase of expansion. Later we used these dollies to move a 1300-ton chip thickness screening facility from one pulp mill to another pulp mill by barge. The list goes on with moves made possible by having these dollies.

We have a heavy 200-ton transformer trailer that can only be used under special conditions because of its weight. When it can be used there is not a more stable, more maneuverable trailer to be had for tight winding streets or mountain trails. When we were asked to move four 65-foot tall, 250-ton digesters from Ketchikan to Vancouver Island we were faced with the challenge of lowering each 25-feet from the original location and loading them to barge where the 25-foot tide closed the window for loading to just a few hours in which we had to drive the load up an 8 percent grade, down an 8 percent grade, and then slide each vessel out onto some false work before lowering them another 35-feet. For this we developed a computerized hydraulic power source, which allowed us to dial in the rate of decent, ensuring that we would not spill the vessels and yet be speedy enough to make all the moves in a reasonable amount of time.

The inclined digester installation at Mackenzie was tight but not as tight as the installation of an identical unit in Elk Falls. In this location we battled low headroom plus existing columns that caused us to strip tires from our dollies to make it through. The move of a vacuum enhanced dryer kiln from the Port of Vancouver to Lumby caused us to stretch our wide vessel deck another 22-feet and re-commission our rear steering unit for the two-day trip. The move of seven digesters from the middle of an operating pulp mill in central B.C. to Indonesia tested our ingenuity and proved our ability to do more than just move things. In this instance we developed a record keeping system that allowed our client to consult a database and find any item in the fifty odd containers complete with photos of the packed piece.

The challenge was to remove the digesters through one hole in the roof. We were able to move some of the units in the existing vertical orientation to the hole in the roof. Four of the units had to be laid horizontal, skated under an extremely important communication cable installation and then we raised the vessels upside down through the hole in the roof before trucking them to the Port of Vancouver.

The use of a hinge to tail a vessel became more common after the digester removals. We have now tailed nearly a dozen vessels in refineries and pulp mills in Prince Rupert, Burnaby, Edmonton and Washington State.

Our attention to detail and procedure won us a couple of more unusual jobs. First we hung an ornate and historic piece of maritime history in a museum and then we delivered an orca to the airport for its private charter flight to the sunny south.

We have moved several bridges in the province. We changed out a 100-ton Railway Bridge during a 10-hour outage. We slid an 800-ton Highway Bridge over 65-feet during another 10-hour, overnight outage. The next morning, traffic was crossing the river over the detour so that a new bridge could be built in the original alignment.
We jacked a section of the Second Narrows Bridge with 24-hundred-ton jacks for maintenance repairs.

When a loaded chip barge slammed a railway swing bridge during a spring flood, we were employed along with a few other talented contractors and collectively we brainstormed a solution jacking the 350-ton structure back to its operating location.

The Ferry Flipper is among the more unusual jobs Apex has completed. The first hull was built upside down to facilitate shape control. We were challenged to pick up 100-tons of a partially welded 80 by 80-foot structure. We developed a frame with pivot points and hydraulic clamps to restrain the structure as we rotated it with three cranes. The procedure was a complete success but never repeated.

Towers have been used in many situations: raising 600-ton precipitators twenty feet, installing the vehicle ramps on the fast ferries, and supporting one end of a runway allowing us to deliver a 30-ton edger 100-feet into a sawmill over all the conveyors and equipment.

We are now directing our efforts towards the installation of cancer treatment equipment in hospitals. Each installation offers different challenges. Relative to the location the pieces are heavy and the facilities are fragile. The equipment requirements are therefore unique and always evolving.