REDIRECT to ARCHIVES OF THE TIDAL CURRENT ENERGY PROJECT 2006-2011
Daily Archives: Thursday,February 15, 2007
February 2007 : Restoration needed for the Imperial tower of at Race Rocks
These pictures were taken before restoration of the Race Rocks Lighthouse in 2009-2010
The Times Colonist ran an article on the problems of the deterioration of the heritage light tower at Race Rocks.Jack Knox and Deborah Brash pay a visit to the tower at the end of January 2007. The following article appears in the Times Colonist.
A beacon of hope for Race Rocks
Carney tries again to win protection for prize lighthouses now withering away, Jack Knox, Times Colonist, Tuesday, Feb. 06, 2007.
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The Condition at RR
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February, 2007 | ||
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| Inside the tower, on the way up the stairs, the walls become pockmarked with condensation blisters | Near the fog sensor, which is set into a south facing window, moisture has caused the wall surface to crumble | The flaking is extensive in the top third of the tower | When the stairs are not swept, there is a continual rain of sand and paint chips. |
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| Near the window where the counterweight is stationed, the crumbling is particularly obvious. | Looking downstaters at the same window. The yellow flag denotes the top of the stairs. | Even the inside of the lantern room has condensation from the windows loosening the painted surface.The light in the foreground is state of the art in low energy consumption. | Outside at the base of the windows, caulking has deteriorated, allowing driving rains to send moisture inside. |
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| Wherever iron is exposed, rusting and deterioration sets in.. this is at the base of one of the windows in the lantern room. | Moisture builds up even behind recent painting. | The metal straps underneath the lantern room which help to anchor the top in place are rusted and partly detached from the decaying sandstone wall. | A crack in the lantern room window apparently appeared years ago when the Coast guard was doing blasting for construction on the island |
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| Crack width on tower Sept15, 2007 |
Corrosion of steel on railing around lantern room, Sept. 2007 |
Fortunately in 2009-2010 , DFO restored the tower. See this page with pictures taken by the Ecoguardian Ryan Murphy
Original Engine Room at Race Rocks – (1860s)
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| Foundation of the original engine room from the tower. February 2007 | Foundation looking south.February 2007 | Foundation looking north. February 2007 |
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| Flywheel from the air compressor | The flywheel is mounted on a bed of bricks, excavated from rubble piles near the tower |
A moon shot of the flywheel below the tower.
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| Against the rock wall above the original concrete foundation of the old engine room, and below the tower, a group led by Hannah and Giovanni on one Project week did the digging out of soil, and replacement with crushed rock. . | This allowed the creation of a natural looking corner for the old historic engine room equipment. In this photo Hannah is on the bucket brigade carrying gravel. |
Some of the artifacts that had accumulated by 2005. | In 2006, the area had taken on a life of its own |
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| Sylvia and Alex Chan examine the old engine parts. | Looking straight down from the tower on the east side, one can see the concrete pathway which we believe went to the blacksmith shop. | In the past, many old pieces of equipment were simply pushed over the side. | In 2006,the old boiler which lay rusting in the intertidal zone for many years was starting to break up. |
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| The storms in the winter of 2006 dispersed the parts of the boiler | These pieces which are now small enough to move will be transferred to the collecting area. | The other end of the boiler. This was carried up to shore on February 12, 2007 by members of the racerocks.com activity.See below. | The hurricane in December 2006 moved rocks exposing more rubble below the energy building. |
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| Link to the file on bricks of Race Rocks |
The last of the rusted parts of the old boiler from the engine room shown above are carried up by Pearson College students in the Race Rocks Activity in 2007 to be part of the collection of other old parts stored at the base of the tower.