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The Two Sections I will be editing soon of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam article.


1.3 Site Selection

Ray Williston, the minister of land and forests for the provincial government at the time, proposed turning sections of the Peace and Columbia River basins known as the “rocky mountain trench” into a source of power generation. The ‘Power Trench', as it was known, would provide not only electricity, but give the ability to control water flow for flood prevention and agricultural purposes in the U.S. and Canada.[1] In 1957 twelve locations along the Peace River were identified by the Wrenner-Gren British Columbia Development Company as potential sites to build a dam.[2] One of the sites, located 22 kilometers from Hudson’s Hope, was judged to be the best location due to its geography.[3] Gordon Shrum, a physics professor at the University of British Columbia, was chosen to conduct a study on the cost effectiveness of developing dams on the Peace and Columbia rivers. The study led to the conclusion that it would be cheaper to build on the Peace River, but only if a public company was used due to lower interest rates available to crown corporations.[4]

The word 'different' in the last sentence makes me not understand what the sentence means, could we just say lower? or would that be incorrect? Yes, it's a relic from a previous version of the sentence, thanks for pointing it out. Regarding the restructuring mentioned above, I've moved the information concerning "Portage Mountain Dam" to the first sentence below.

1.4 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.[5] 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.[6] 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.[3] 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.[7] At the time, the dam had one of the largest hydroelectric generating stations. It is located 150 metres below ground and includes 10 generating units built inside of the massive earthen structure.[8]

The project was widely seen as a success at the time, especially considering its remote location far from civilization.[9] The construction project was managed by Gordon Shrum, the appointed head of the newly created B.C. Hydro crown corporation.[10] The provincial government had specifically created B.C. Hydro as a way of financing the project through lower interest rates available to crown corporations.[4] When Shrum took over the project in 1961 it was already a year behind schedule meeting the 1968 deadline to generate power.[11] 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.[12] 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.[11]

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 lockouts of strikes.[13] 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.[14] The workers onsite lived in temporary camps built around the Portage Mountain site with more workers in the summer and less in the winter.[15] Much of the construction occurred inside the dam which was claustrophobic, full of exhaust fumes, and occasionally subject to cave-ins.[16] In total, 16 men lost their lives working on the dam.[17] The Main powerhouse is named the G.M. Shrum generating station.[11] It was designed to resemble a giant transformer and was one of the largest power generating stations to be built in the 1960s.[18]

During the construction process, the portage mountain lookout was one of the first buildings constructed so that tourists could view the progress on the dam.[19]

  • Iredale, Kathryn (2008). Finding A Good Fit: The Life and Work of Architect Rand Iredale. Vancouver: Blueimprint. ISBN 9781894965903.

I have more detailed info on the dam construction but I’ll really be bursting the word limit, should I include more about things I haven’t mentioned like the intake unit etc? I believe it may be too detailed for a wiki article. General info to add to intro?: once supplied B.C. with 40% of its energy in 1968 (17) Produced more power than originally could be used by province, part of Bennett’s vision of future development. Perhaps put a line in about the sinkhole, reference a newspaper article? Thoughts?

Yes, I agree. I think that the intake unit may be more detail than we are looking for with our contributions due to word count, but I could be persuaded otherwise quite easily. --Heatheralyse (talk) 23:09, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I would leave out all of the above information and focus solely on the construction, as you have done. Also, some of the info above is already mentioned in the rest of the article. I put in some internal links to other Wikipedia articles that I know of and am wondering what to do about that info on the visitors center. Add it, not add it? Is the portage mountain look out you talk about what is today the visitors center? I believe the lookout may be different than the current visitors centre which I get the impression is located in the Shrum Generating Station, however the material I've found is vague. On further research it seems the old visitors centre is still active to some degree.

Overall, great job! I found the construction part very well written and easy to understand, which is awesome cuz I know nothing about these things :) --Heatheralyse (talk) 23:09, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

  1. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 7.
  2. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 34,42.
  3. ^ a b Stanley 2010, p. 53.
  4. ^ a b Stanley 2010, p. 9-10.
  5. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 66-67.
  6. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 52.
  7. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 1,3.
  8. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 17.
  9. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 3.
  10. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 41.
  11. ^ a b c Stanley 2010, p. 42.
  12. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 42, 45-46.
  13. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 45-46.
  14. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 49.
  15. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 55,98.
  16. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 60-61.
  17. ^ Stanley 2010, p. 57.
  18. ^ Iredale 2010, p. 85.
  19. ^ Iredale 2010, p. 75.
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