THE NORTHWEST Transmission Line isn’t the only power line project in the area.
The Dasque and Middle Creek run of river project south and west of Terrace requires a 22km line connecting it to BC Hydro’s Skeena Substation. It’s a smaller project of 20 megawatts and became the property of Versen Energy of Calgary when it bought Swift Power two years ago.
The line’s being built by Allteck Line Contractors which two years ago purchased local company Twin River Power.
Allteck, based in the lower mainland, has a long-standing working relationship with Rio Tinto Alcan.
The Dasque project is to be a 63 kv line strung along 220 wooden poles using a workforce of between 12-15 people.
“We’ll be starting in mid-July and be finished in November, mid-November,” says Robin Lucas, Allteck’s senior vice president of operations.
He describes the terrain as challenging but with the advantage of paralleling an existing BC Hydro line right of way.
“There’s also a [Pacific Natural Gas] line there so we’re in an established corridor. There’s less clearing and less environmental impact by working in an existing corridor,” said Lucas.
Both Valard and Allteck are owned by the Quanta Services, a very large Houston, Texas that through subsidiaries designs, installs, and maintains infrastructure for the electric power, renewable energy, natural gas, telecommunications and broadband cable.
Quanta expects revenues for the full year 2012 to range between (US) $5.4 billion and (US) $5.7 billion.
Quanta purchased Allteck in 2001 and Valard in 2010.
