BC Hydro has chosen Edmonton-based Valard Construction, owned by U.S.-based Quanta Services and Burns & McDonnell, also a U.S. company, as contractors to design and build the Northwest Transmission Line (NTL).
The NTL will be a 344-kilometre, 287-kilovolt transmission line from Skeena Substation near Terrace to Bob Quinn Lake. The project will provide an interconnection point for clean-energy generation projects and supply clean electricity to support future industrial developments in the area.
The power line is scheduled to be in service in December 2013.
BC Hydro says the project will create up to 840 direct jobs during the three years of construction.
According to a 2008 report from the Mining Association of BC, the NTL has the potential to attract $15 billion in new investment and create more than 10,000 jobs over the next few decades.
BC Hydro will also provide direct employment to First Nations and Nisga'a Nation members in the region with a number of direct awards for NTL project work, such as access-road construction and right-of-way clearing work.
Meanwhile, the province says it is also committed to BC Hydro's controversial, $7 billion Site-C dam, though all environmental studies on the giant Peace River project have not been completed.
from Western Investor October 2011
