FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Crews on BC Hydro’s Site C Clean Energy project are celebrating a major concrete work milestone several months ahead of schedule.
Crews completed roller-compacted concrete placements in the upper spillway buttress late last month. This achievement occurred seven months before expected.
In total, crews placed 585,516 cubic metres of roller-compacted concrete this year – roughly 30 per cent more than was placed last year and 300 per cent more than 2017’s overall volume. To date, more than 1,215,276 million cubic metres of roller-compacted concrete have been placed on the project.
Roller-compacted concrete is a unique mix of concrete with special properties that make it ideal for dam construction. The roller-compacted concrete is created on-site, then moved by trucks and conveyor belts to the buttresses.
The spillways buttress is one of three large concrete buttresses – or foundations – BC Hydro is building to support the projects powerhouse, spillways and the dam itself. BC Hydro noted that together, they are a key component of the project’s design, and will ensure dam stability, even if a major earthquake occurs.
The powerhouse buttress was completed one year ago, and the dam buttress is scheduled to begin in 2020. Combined, the buttresses measure approximately 800 metres long and up to 70 metres wide. They are made up of approximately two million cubic metres of roller-compacted concrete. That’s six times the volume of concrete used to build the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed