PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
GOING
UNDERGROUND
How a BC Hydro project on Vancouver Island is enhancing
public safety while also benefitting the environment
By Mark Halsall
The John Hart Generating Station just outside
the city of Campbell River, B.C., has been help-ing
to power Vancouver Island for more than
70 years. To ensure the continued delivery of
clean, reliable energy for many more years to come, the time-worn
facility will soon be replaced by a brand-new generating
station slated to begin operation later this year.
Encompassing 100 hectares inside Elk Falls Provincial Park,
the John Hart facility is one of three hydroelectric generating
stations on the Campbell River system that together supply
about 11 per cent of Vancouver Island’s total power needs.
Stephen Watson, communications lead for the John Hart
project for BC Hydro, notes the total construction bill will
end up close to $1.1 billion.
“It’s on schedule and on budget to finish in the fall of this
year, so we’re near the finish line,” he said. “It’s been an amaz-ing
project.”
Construction on the John Hart project began in the spring
of 2014. At the peak of construction last summer, there were
about 500 people working on the site.
According to Watson, safety has always top priority on the
jobsite. By the beginning of spring, the project was closing
in on three million person hours of work without a lost-time
accident, he says.
The project contractor is InPower BC, a consortium led
by SNC-Lavalin and which includes Aecon Group, Frontier-
Kemper Constructors, General Electric and Hatfield
Environmental. Fraser River Pile & Dredge (FRPD) of New
Westminster, B.C., was sub-contracted to do the deep foun-dation
work for the project.
There are four main components to the John Hart project:
• Construction of the replacement generating station
located about 500 metres up the penstock corridor from
the existing facility
• Replacement of three 1.8-kilometre-long pipelines with a
single, 2.1-kilometre-long tunnel
• Construction of a new water intake at the John Hart
Spillway Dam
• Construction of a new water bypass facility within
the powerhouse
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BC HYDRO
PILING CANADA 43