Construction
When plans for construction were given the green light on the W.A.C. Bennett Dam (known as the Portage Mountain Dam during construction), clearing the soon to be reservoir was the first step in the process. It was a massive undertaking which was completed on the shoestring budget of five million dollars by the Forest Service Branch. The initial stages of construction required building a coffer dam, preparing the foundations and injecting grout into the ground to create a watertight seal, building a drainage system, and excavating to create a solid base for building. Over the course of construction 55 million cubic yards of rock and dirt were taken from the nearby glacial moraine by conveyor belt to create the dam relying primarily on gravity to hold it together. Upon completion, the W.A.C. Bennett Dam became one of the biggest earth filled dams in the world stretching 183 metres tall, 800 metres wide, by two kilometres long. When completed, the dam had one of the largest hydroelectric generating stations. Components are located as far as 150 metres below ground and includes 10 generating units built inside of the massive earthen structure. The Main powerhouse structure is named the G.M. Shrum generating station. It was designed to resemble a giant transformer to reflect its function and modern design of the 1960s.
The project was widely seen as a success, especially considering its remote location far from civilization. The construction project was managed by Gordon Shrum, the appointed head of the newly created B.C. Hydro crown corporation. The provincial government had specifically created B.C. Hydro as a way of financing the project through lower interest rates available to crown corporations and to control the development of provincial energy resources. When Shrum took over the project in 1961 it was already a year behind schedule meeting the 1968 deadline to generate power. Through a ‘hands on’, ‘cost conscious’ and a ‘design as you go’ strategy, the project was officially completed in the fall of 1967 with the first generators going online in 1968. The project was completed on time and on budget, however additional construction would continue through the 1970s with final completion in 1980 when the last generator was installed.
The construction of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam involved over twenty unions that were bound by ten year contracts guaranteeing B.C. Hydro no lockout (industry) or strike action. This contract allowed the project to be built without labour delays. The men involved on the project were international, coming from around North America, Europe, and as far as Japan. The workers onsite lived in temporary camps built around the Portage Mountain site with more workers in the summer and less in the winter. Much of the construction occurred inside the dam which was claustrophobic, full of exhaust fumes, and occasionally subject to cave-ins. In total, 16 men have lost their lives working on the dam.
During the construction process, the portage mountain lookout was one of the first buildings built so that tourists could view the progress on the dam.
Read more about this topic: W. A. C. Bennett Dam, History
Famous quotes containing the word construction:
“No real “vital” character in fiction is altogether a conscious construction of the author. On the contrary, it may be a sort of parasitic growth upon the author’s personality, developing by internal necessity as much as by external addition.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)