Some trails near the John Hart Dam will be closed for two months due to some noisy work.
BC Hydro is installing 300 steel H-piles at the base of the middle earthfill dam as part of the six-year seismic upgrade project.
Banging in the steel beams will create sound that can cause hearing damage – exceeding 85 decibels at times.
Spokesman Stephen Watson says the installation was originally going to take six months but they’ve cut it down to two.
“Basically the coordination and the work with Aecon-EBC General Partnership, our contractor, we were able to refine it and do it in a way where it’s very conducive and limits the amount of time where we’re doing that H-pile work. We’re fairly pleased with what we were looking at maybe a few years ago to the actual construction work that’s about to take place,” Watson told Vista Radio.
Watson adds the timing took park users and wildlife into account by starting after Labour Day.
“We’re preparing the site. We’ll have equipment put in place, monitoring (sound levels), to put these piles in place. There’s actually quite a schematic of the positioning of the piles at the base of the dam and we’re pretty confident to the work. It’s actually an interesting part of the work and so we’re looking forward to it taking place,” he said.
The upper trails in Elk Falls Provincial Park leading to Dolphin Pool will be closed on weekdays from September 3rd to November 4th.
Watson says they are starting off with a conservative closure but “we’ll refine that based on actual (sound) readings” once the work begins. But Watson says, for sure, the trails leading to Dolphin Pool will be closed the entire time.
The closure will be on weekdays from the day after Labour Day (Sept. 3) until Nov. 4.
Access to the Elk Falls Suspension Bridge will still be open.
As for the rest of the six year project, Watson says work is “going well” and people walking to Elk Falls will see dredging material from the upstream side of the main dam being deposited in the pen stock quarter.
Around 100 people are working on the site.
