BC Hydro has achieved another capital project milestone this month by submitting a combined project application to the BC Utilities Commission on the planned seismic upgrades to the Strathcona and Ladore facilities on the Campbell River hydroelectric system.
“These two upgrade projects, along with the John Hart Dam seismic upgrades, will enable these facilities to continue to safely pass water downstream following a major earthquake or during a major flood event,” says BC Hydro spokesperson, Stephen Watson. “These projects are about downstream public safety.”
The Strathcona Dam Water Discharge Upgrade Project is required to address dam safety risks at the facility and enable the lowering of the reservoir water level after a major earthquake.
“The Strathcona project will replace or upgrade seismically deficient structures and components of the dam’s spillway area to provide post-earthquake reservoir level drawdown capability,” says Watson. “It is also to provide improved facility reliability for downstream water passage under normal conditions to extreme flood events.”
A major part of the project will be the creation of a deep channel that forms a low-level outlet, located within rock on the right side of the dam. The outlet will be about 330 metres long, 29 metres wide, and 17 metres deep. Two gates in a concrete structure will be located within the new channel.
The Ladore Spillway Seismic Upgrade project will significantly improve the overall seismic withstand and reliability of the spillway gates system, and provide new spillway gate power supply, control and telecommunications, as well as the concrete dam’s seismic withstand being improved with the anchoring of the spillway area to bedrock.
Since 2015, BC Hydro has been meeting with First Nations, government agencies and stakeholders on the two projects as designs were refined and to consider community interests.
Contingent on project approvals, construction is planned to begin at both the Ladore and Strathcona sites in early 2025. Both have project completions forecasted for 2028. The two combined projects may generate about 180 jobs per year.
“These safety-driven large capital projects are so important for the Campbell River area,” says North Island MLA, Michele Babchuk. “I appreciate BC Hydro’s ongoing commitment to comprehensive community engagement, and I encourage people to take every opportunity to learn more about the project’s design and constructability considerations, fish and water quality protections, and the hundreds of jobs as well as subcontractor opportunities, particularly for First Nations.”
In early May, the BC Utilities Commission concluded the John Hart Dam Seismic Upgrade Project regulatory process and found the project’s expenditure was in the public’s interest. Seismic upgrade work at the John Hart site is set to begin in July and may generate about 100 to 150 jobs per year.
Since 2014, BC Hydro, the City of Campbell River and the Strathcona Regional District have collaborated to inform the downstream community of the potential interim risk from a major earthquake. This collaboration includes the development of brochures, kiosks and evacuation area maps, with the overall messaging being: if it knocks you down, go to high ground.
The earthfill Strathcona Dam is 53 metres tall and 500 metres long. Water from the Upper Campbell Reservoir/Buttle Lake enters an intake upstream of the earthfill dam and passes through the dam to a 64 MW powerhouse on the downstream side.
The concrete Ladore Dam is about 38 metres tall and 95 metres long. Water from the Lower Campbell Reservoir/McIvor enters a 520-metre-long tunnel in rock and flows to the 47 MW powerhouse downstream. Water from the Ladore facility passes down into the John Hart Reservoir.
More information on the projects can be found at www.majorprojects.ca.
READ MORE:
BC Hydro issues a Request for Proposal for a contractor to build the Ladore project