Highway 103 Twinning

The twinning of Highway 103 near Chester puts a second set of lanes, ramps and connectors through rock beside a highway that stays open. That means blasting on a schedule the travelling public can live with: traffic held for each shot, rock kept off the pavement, and a vibration limit of 12.5 mm/s on all three components at the nearest structure.

Production holes are loaded with bulk emulsion rather than packaged cartridges. A pumped, fully coupled column puts a consistent, known charge in every hole, which is what keeps a long program of blasts predictable — shot after shot, through two construction seasons.

The first blast was in September 2025. By October 2026 there had been 216.