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Mike Rowe, star of Discovery Channel Canada’s Dirty Jobs, has performed some challenging tasks, but few top his work in Bridge Painter, an episode scheduled to air tomorrow, November 10, at 4 p.m.
Trade Contracting
Mackinac Bridge faces an internal assault by Mike Rowe
Mike Rowe, star of Discovery Channel Canada’s Dirty Jobs series, has performed some challenging tasks, but few top his work in Bridge Painter, an episode scheduled to air tomorrow, November 10, at 4 p.m.
In this segment, dirty-jobber Rowe performs gruelling maintenance service on Michigan’s Mackinac Bridge, a program produced in conjunction with the structure’s 50th anniversary.
The Mackinac (pronounced mac-in-aw) suspension bridge stretches more than 8,000 metres across the state’s Straits of Mackinac, with bridge towers soaring 168 metres above water level.
“One of the jobs Mike performed was removing paint from the inside of the bridge tower using a pneumatic needle gun,” says Thomas Moran, painting supervisor with the Mackinac Bridge Authority (MBA). The bridge towers consist of a series of vertically-stacked chambers with floor space as small as 1.2 square metres.
When moisture gets into the towers, water trickles down the inside surfaces, creating a rust problem that needs to be tackled each year. Once the needles start firing, the space is consumed with showers of rust and paint particles. “It’s hot, humid and dirty,” says Moran. “You have to wear a full face mask and respirator and the conditions are miserable. Mike didn’t just perform a token shift. He was down there for five or six hours, but he didn’t seem to mind it.”
Bridge maintenance on the Mackinac never stops. Bolts and rivets are routinely checked and joints are inspected and repaired. An on-site steel fabrication shop provides made-to-order replacement parts.
The task of painting the bridge is so immense that, once the bridge has been fully painted — a 10-year cycle performed by a 12-person crew — it’s time to start all over again. Spot-painting takes care of problem areas.
Rowe helped the crew to paint the bridge’s suspension cables using a pair of mittens designed specifically for the job.
“We sent him up in what we call a sky climber,” says Moran. “It’s a little buggy with carts on each side of it that hooks onto the main cable. Two workers go up in it and mitt the cable down together.”
After “mitting down,” Rowe’s third job with the bridge maintenance crew proved no less daunting: changing the light bulbs on the top of a bridge tower.
“We trained Mike in fall protection and provided him with fall-protection safety gear,” says Kim Nowack, chief engineer with the MBA’s maintenance and engineering department.
“He had a camera strapped to his helmet and climbed up the main cable at the low point, while our electrician followed behind him, telling him what to do.”
A helicopter equipped with a camera provided additional television coverage.
“He was leery of the height, but he did it” says Nowack.
Moran says that Rowe’s maintenance work definitely passes muster.
“I inspected his painting and the work was really good,” he says. “He just doesn’t say ‘no.’ If he were applying for a job, I’d definitely hire him.”
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