Being hired to demolish the submarines in the West Edmonton Malls defunct undersea excursion is one of the oddest jobs North Vancouver-based All Sea Enterprises has been hired for, said Matt Bone, senior surface engineer.
It would be the most unusual because weve never worked in an environment so friendly a shopping centre, said Bone, laughing.
Divers and technicians have begun work to dismantle and to cut up the four mothballed tourist attractions, a process expected to take 30 days.
Divers are cutting up the old subs using high-powered saws, and once complete the remains of the 38-tonne, aluminum-and-lead track-bound vessels will be headed to the scrap heap.
The four Polaris subs were once part of a ride operated by the shopping centre. They carried up to 24 people at a time on a 20- to 30-minute ride around the indoor lake inside North Americas largest mall.
Since making their last voyage in June 2005, the submarines once touted as a fleet larger than the Canadian Navys have spent years rusting on their underwater track.
The mall, which is undergoing a facelift, decided the decommissioned subs had to go.
We ceased operating the submarine rides because we werent happy with the quality of the attraction, said West Edmonton Mall general manager Stacey Claffey.
We spent time looking at how we might be able to use the submarines again, but there werent any options that could meet the standards we want in an attraction, most importantly, providing a unique and exciting experience.
The reality is that now the submarines are old and deteriorating, they no longer meet the standards for such vessels, and they do not add excitement to the lake.
Our revitalization plans include all areas of the shopping centre and the removal of the submarines will certainly help us identify a variety of options for Deep Sea Adventure Lake and area, Claffey said.
