Landlord in the Arctic-Chapter 86: Blasting

On the phone, Feng Mountain told the other party about the mountain path plan.

The other person was clearly a professional, asking for details about the Melted Snow River Valley’s situation, the original color and texture of the rock, the length and width of the mountain path, weather conditions, and a whole series of other questions.

The cost of the call made Feng Mountain wince, but he had no choice but to answer each question one by one.

Seven US Dollars a minute. In just that short time, over a hundred US Dollars were gone.

"Mr. Feng, the project is no problem. When can I get to the Crown Territory?"

"The sooner the better. It would be even better if you could arrive today." Feng Mountain just wanted to get this wretched road fixed as soon as possible.

However, thinking about the lazy work habits of these Old Mei, he was afraid it would take them ten days to half a month to get this road done.

Unfortunately, the reality check came all too quickly.

「Four hours after hanging up the phone.」

Several planes appeared, roaring over the camp.

By the time Feng Mountain rushed to the runway, the planes had already landed. More than ten burly men in uniform insulated work clothes and hard hats were unloading various tools and sealed metal boxes from the cabins.

"Hello, I’m Zack, the manager of the Aleut Corporation. You must be Mr. Feng. We spoke on the phone this morning!" A tall, powerfully built man who looked a lot like Schwarzenegger walked up to Feng Mountain.

"That’s me. You guys got here really fast!" Feng Mountain replied with a smile.

"Time is money. That’s the Aleut motto." Manager Zack raised his hand and made a gesture at his brow, fluid and practiced, as if he had done it countless times.

The gesture surprised Feng Mountain. Only military personnel would do that.

"You were in the military?"

"68th Regiment, Alaska National Guard, retired Second Lieutenant." Manager Zack’s lips curled slightly as his gaze went past Feng Mountain toward the camp. "Mr. Feng, please, let’s not discuss such meaningless topics. Take us to the construction site."

’He really is a veteran!’

Everything he did had a military flavor to it.

Judging by their movements, the other workers were probably veterans as well.

Feng Mountain had no choice but to cut the small talk. He led the engineering team to the Melted Snow River Valley and pointed at the meager results he and Nash had managed to dig out.

"Just carve a mountain path starting from here."

Manager Zack nodded. With a wave of his hand, workers immediately opened the metal boxes, took out various surveying tools, and began the first step: taking measurements.

Soon, the workers handed various inspection reports to Manager Zack. After carefully reading through all the documents, he passed them to Feng Mountain.

"This mountain is a Granite formation, a type of deep intrusive rock, which is very suitable for blasting. Our company’s blasting technology can perfectly separate the rock from the mountain. We can also formulate a blasting plan, a blast design, and the corresponding design proposal for you."

"Based on your requirements, we won’t need to deal with the fallen rock. This mountain path can be widened to a full 2 meters. Not only will this save you from future widening work and a large expense, but the cost will be slightly higher than what we discussed."

’Hmph!’

’He sure knows how to do business, raising the price on-site, and I’m in no position to refuse.’

Feng Mountain narrowed his eyes, gazing at the valley for a moment in thought.

"How much?"

"200,000 US Dollars. We guarantee the result of the blast will be as beautiful as the road to the White House."

’200,000 US Dollars to make my life easier.’

’Worth it!’

Feng Mountain agreed to Zack’s proposal on the spot.

Widening the path to 2 meters meant that in the future, he could even drive a car directly onto the Glacial River Beach.

The two parties signed a contract on-site.

As for the issue of reporting to the relevant authorities, Feng Mountain hadn’t even considered it.

’It’s my own Crown Territory, what’s there to report?’

The Aleut Corporation was even less of a concern. They showed Feng Mountain their FFL, and they also had the state government’s authorization permit for engineering explosives. Besides, a small project like this was trivial for the Aleut Corporation.

Their usual work involved technical blasting for large-scale mining operations. They only took on Feng Mountain’s job as a favor to Tom.

After receiving their orders, the workers began at once.

Some used instruments to mark out lines, while others held rock drills, drilling holes into the rock along the markings with a RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE.

Professionals do professional work.

Feng Mountain couldn’t have learned it even if he wanted to. It involved all sorts of specialized knowledge, so it was best to just sit quietly to the side and be an audience.

Naturally, Manager Zack wouldn’t let his client sit alone. He occasionally took the time to give Feng Mountain an on-site explanation.

The so-called Granite structure was, in fact, just granite. Granite has many joints and fissures, which not only makes it easy to drill but also helps with controlling the rubble during blasting.

By the afternoon, along the entire 130-meter length of the cliff face, they had drilled two dense rows of cut holes on the upper and lower free faces. This was to create new free faces for the blasting of the other boreholes, reducing the rock’s confinement and improving the blasting effect.

The perimeter holes are the outermost circle of boreholes arranged along the edge of the rock face. Their purpose is to control the final contour of the cliff face, and they are loaded with the smallest amount of charge.

Between the two rows of cut holes, there were also some scattered boreholes. Zack explained that these scattered holes were helper holes, used to expand the cavity created by the cut holes.

Furthermore, the borehole layout also involved determining the blasting network. Detonating cords were used to control the direction of the detonation, allowing the perimeter holes to be connected in parallel in the same direction to achieve the final blasting effect.

When all the boreholes were set, workers opened the sealed metal boxes and took out long sticks of high-energy explosives wrapped in plastic. Following the calculated charge amounts, they placed them into the boreholes and then sealed them with stemming material.

In Zack’s words, good stemming improves the explosive’s detonation performance.

The final step was connecting the initiation network.

Once all the preparations were complete, Feng Mountain was moved to a safe distance.

There was a short blast from a whistle, immediately followed by a dull BOOM.

Before Feng Mountain could even react, a powerful tremor shot up from under his feet. The ground seemed to come alive, trembling violently.

Then, billowing clouds of smoke and dust shot into the sky, spreading rapidly and completely shrouding the Melted Snow River Valley area.

Just then, Manager Zack led the workers over, his face beaming with a smile, his voice booming.

"Mr. Feng, the explosion was perfect. You’ll have your mountain path in just a moment."

"The Aleut Corporation’s blasting technology is absolutely top-tier in Alaska. There isn’t a blasting job we can’t handle!"

When the dust settled, a mountain path had appeared on the cliff face of the Melted Snow River Valley. The result of the explosion was just as Zack had said—absolutely perfect.

The granite on the side against the cliff face was now a sheer, sloped wall. Although the path’s surface still had some protruding rocks in places, they didn’t impede walking and could be smoothed out later with minor adjustments.

The entire path was over two meters wide and stretched all the way to the Glacial River Beach. As for the blasted rocks, they had all fallen into the Melt River.

Under the impact of the rocks, the layer of ice on the river’s surface had developed a series of cracks, like a shattered mirror, losing its former beauty.

"Mr. Feng, how do you like the results?" Manager Zack asked again.

"Not bad. I’m very satisfied!"

What else could Feng Mountain say? They had created a mountain path in just half a day from the same rock he and Nash had struggled with for ages without making a dent.

’This 200,000 was money well spent!’

Thinking this, he briskly took out his checkbook and scribbled down the amount.

Taking the check, Manager Zack didn’t even inspect it. When you’re in the demolition business, you’re not afraid of being cheated.

"A pleasure doing business with you. I hope we’ll have the chance to work together again."

...