Taking a closer look at Site C: The first 100 days

As Site-C passed the 100-day construction mark last week, BC Hydro took a group of local media on a tour of the north bank, to show them what is happening right now on the Peace River.

Despite all the fog, it provided stark visuals of how the dam will fit in with it’s surroundings.

https://twitter.com/montana_rc/status/662714495559581696

“The first stop was an area overlooking the Peace River. We had a good view of the activities happening on the south bank,” said David Conway with BC Hydro.

That check point provided a view of the mouth of the Moberly river, and the tour could see where the dam would go across, and how high up it would go; there was an idea of the clearing work happening on the south bank, where the rail site is.

More than 1 million m³ of material has been excavated and relocated on the north bank of the dam site.

Some of the numbers from the first 100 days include:

• 600+ people are currently working on the project and this number will continue to increase in the coming years – About 450 of them, or roughly 75-80%, are from BC.
• 1,000+ people and over 200 businesses participated in jobs fairs and business-to-business networking sessions in October in Tumbler Ridge, Chetwynd and Fort St. John.
• 900 m of public road improvements have been completed, with another 1.6 km of roadwork underway.
• Another 15 km of construction access roads are under construction within the dam site area.
• 530+ hectares of land has been cleared as part of site preparation work.
• About 13,000 m³ of timber has been delivered to local mills for processing.

Next, BC Hydro brought media closer to the action – specifically, the action of a 1,600-person work camp being built.

https://twitter.com/montana_rc/status/662718447621509120

This camp is expected to be finished in the early to late spring, and it being built for the main civil works contractor says Conway. Right now, there is a temporary 300-person camp.

The first pour of concrete took place for the worker accommodation lodge back in October, and dorms have been delivered to site.

So what’s on the way for the next 100 days? Conway says some highlights are the announcement of the main civil works contractor is a big one – who will be taking care of the dam itself, the diversion tunnels, major movement – and excavation of the north bank slope.

Road improvements to 240, 269, and Old Fort roads are also on the agenda.