S TANDARD TERRACE
1.30
$
$1.24 PLUS 6¢ GST
VOL. 26 NO. 30
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Power line stringing underway By JOSH MASSEY MOTORISTS ON Hwy16 west of Terrace last week were witness to a helicopter high wire act as power lines were strung from pole to pole on BC Hydro’s Northwest Transmission Line which has entered a new construction phase. With traffic stopped, drivers had time to watch as a helicopter strung lines across the Skeena River, connecting high towers that had been installed earlier in the year. Valard, BC Hydro’s general contractor hired to construct the 344km long transmission line running north of BC Hydro’s Skeena Substation to Bob Quinn on Hwy37 North, employed Blackcomb Aviation from southern BC to do the stringing. Using a short-bodied helicopter with a powerful engine, a Blackcomb pilot pulled rope and cable through the air while Valard workers positioned on top of the towers helped guide them into a pulley system. The helicopter performed several passes, hovering in one place for up to 10 minutes as the cable was secured. “They pull, sag, mark, clip,” said BC Hydro official Anthony Mullin who was overseeing the work, about the meticulous and delicate process. A rope line is installed first, then the next operation is to pull a hard line into place using the rope line. Then they pull two aluminium conductors with steel cores into place. Then they sag the lines and install spacers and dampers. BC Hydro has said construction is on pace to have the line functioning next spring however there are still several hundred of 1,100 tow-
JOSH MASSEY PHOTO
A LINEMAN strings hydro wire into place which was carried across the Skeena river by the helicopter using the hooks hanging from a cable. This one of 1,100 towers that make up the Northwest Transmission Line. ers to be erected and more than 50 per cent of line to be strung. A majority of the towers have been or will be lifted into place using a heavy-lift helicopter belonging to Erickson Air-Crane, a
company specializing in heavylift operations. Approximately 600 structures have been flown in to date with about another 250 to be installed this year. Valard, which is based in Ed-
monton, has 448 people employed on the $746 million project, 345 of whom are local with 165 of the total workforce being aboriginal. There are another approximately 50 workers working for companies subcon-
tracted to Valard, housed at various points along the transmission line route with one camp located at Kitsumkalum just west of Terrace and another in the Nass Valley.
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Ksan House reveals affordable housing plans By JOSH MASSEY A LOCAL social services society has revealed ambitious plans to build at least 20 low-income and affordable rental units on cityowned land in Terrace. Ksan House Society executive director Carol Sabo asked city
council Oct. 28 to consider granting it a long term lease on either one of two city-owned properties as well as $10,000 to help it do design work. She described the proposed buildings, to be built on a concrete slab foundation, as easily assembled pre-fabricated units costing
an estimated $90,000 each. One of the parcels is on the 4900 Block of Park Ave. in the Horseshoe where it intersects with Kenney, the location once of a provincial highways ministry maintenance yard, and the other fronts on Haugland on the Southside and is adjacent to the society’s emergen-
cy shelter and short-term housing complex on Hall St. Sabo did add the project would require a lot of volunteer help but said a partnership between the society and Northwest Community College construction programs would be key. “What I want for all those
groups is six strong backs for the weekend,” said Sabo of a call for volunteer help being put forward to various community groups and businesses. Sabo said the plan responds to a growing need for housing in the community.
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Thank you all
SO2 emissions
Hockey champs
Community rallies to help couple after vandals wreck backyard bench \COMMUNITY A20
Rio Tinto Alcan explains why they chose not to install scrubbers. \NEWS A4
Peewee Reps come first in Cliff Sharples showdown. \SPORTS A30