Kettle River Line Construction for the Enbridge Transmission Development Project

Kettle River was a new ‘in-out’, double circuit line connecting a newly constructed substation to the grid.  240kV Construction which was bundled 477 Hawk conductor.  The project included installation of OHSW (overhead shield wire), OPGW (optical ground wire) and salvage of conductor wire. Allteck constructed 9 towers and several wood structures with a circuit length of about 4.5 km.  Scope was added to the work which included having Allteck install bird diverters with a helicopter from Blackcomb Aviation. We completed the work with no deficiencies and met the customer’s in-service date.

Challenges

Winter construction was required due to wet muskeg conditions.  The construction schedule was compressed due to the delayed onset of winter. Once winter set in extreme cold weather and high winds were battled as temperature were frequently below -25 degrees. Execution challenges also included stringing conductor over an active railroad.

Specialized Work Methods

Allteck implemented cold weather construction methods including mitigating hypothermia and equipment maintenance. Allteck installed the bird diverters using helicopter platform work methods. To gain efficiency in tower erections, Allteck brought in a 225 ton crane to implement heavy lifts to accelerate the construction sequence.