Courtesy of saskpower.com.
It’s a major accomplishment for SaskPower and a major improvement for the electrical needs of the province’s north.
A 330-million dollar power transmission line that stretches from Island Falls to Key Lake is now officially complete.
It took five years, and was one of the most complex transmission projects in North America due to the remote terrain, cold winters and working conditions. The line is supported by 760 towers, with each of them constructed on site.
SaskPower Vice President, Tim Eckel, says it was quite a challenge.
“I think we thought it was going to be more of a rock foundation to put the structures on, but we found it was muskeg,” he said. “Due to the access, it was a challenge to get all the equipment and all the material in to create the foundations for those structures.”
Sixty-million dollars of the project budget went to northern businesses and local aboriginal bands, including the Lac La Ronge and Peter Ballantyne. In all, 64 companies, and about 300 workers were used to complete the 300-kilometer transmission line.
Eckel says the line will increase both capacity and reliability in the north.
“Significant,” he said. “You should notice an improvement in reliability going forward because with the new line we now have two sources for some of those areas.”
SaskTel also used the line to install fiber cable, which increases capacity to its northern network.