A 48-km all-weather gravel access road was built between Provincial Road 391 and the Wuskwatim site. Construction of the road began in August 2006, and was completed in late fall 2008.
The road crosses bogs, eskers, marshes, swamps, and 9 streams. To accommodate the stream crossings, culverts (single or double corrugated metal structures) were placed under the roadway at each crossing.
Areas with granular deposits (rock, gravel and sand) along the route were used to provide materials for the road's construction. Some of these deposits are also being used for construction of the generating station itself, while other sites will be rehabilitated and left to return to nature. Approximately 2.2 million cubic metres (cu. m) of granular material was used during road construction.
The access road is a critical component of the Wuskwatim Generating Station since the timing of all construction activities was tied to gaining access to the site.
Completed in late fall 2008.
A modern 700-person construction camp, located north of the project site, has been built to house workers building the generating station.
The camp includes:
Fibre optic cable provides high-speed internet, telephone, and cable TV for camp residents. Cellular telephone service is also available in the immediate area of the camp and construction site.
The construction camp, recreational facilities and cultural area are complete and in use.
Wuskwatim's main dam will:
Construction of the main dam, spillway, and powerhouse requires the excavation of:
Some of the bedrock excavation will be used as rip-rap (large rocks used to prevent erosion of shorelines and dams) but the majority of the materials will be disposed of in a permanent earth and rock-filled berm which will be constructed between Taskinigup Falls and Wuskwatim Falls.
A channel will also be excavated immediately north and adjacent to Wuskwatim Falls through the peninsula. The channel will improve the outflow conditions from Wuskwatim Lake into the immediate forebay (reservoir) area, upstream of the powerhouse.
Excavation at the project site occurred in two distinct phases.
Phase 1 preliminary excavation was completed in spring 2008, with approximately 650,000 cu. m of materials excavated. The upstream containment dyke and rockfill portions of the Stage 1 upstream and downstream cofferdams are complete.
Phase 2 excavation for the principal structures and channels began in June 2008, with approximately 525,000 cu. m excavated. Phase 2 work also included the production and stockpiling of coarse aggregate materials for use in later phases of construction, including concrete production. Phase 2 was complete in February 2009.
Total excavations to date are approximately 1,178,000 cu. m of overlying soil and bedrock material.
Wuskwatim's powerhouse will:
The powerhouse will contain:
As of May 25, 2010 approximately 63,200 cubic metres of concrete for the powerhouse, intake structures, service bay and tailrace have been placed. An additional 4,600 cu. m of concrete have been placed for a variety of miscellaneous structures. For the first time on a Manitoba Hydro generating station project, concrete placement has primarily been done through the use of concrete pumps.
The erection of structural steel for the powerhouse is complete, and a temporary metal cladding is in place that allowed crews to continue pouring concrete throughout the winter months. This temporary cladding will be replaced by the station's permanent cladding later this year.
Installation of some of the major embedded components for the turbine generators has begun, starting with the placement and alignment of the draft tube liner in Unit No. 1. The installation process will proceed to Unit No. 3, with Unit No. 2 to follow.
The project's spillway:
The first concrete was placed in the spillway on May 17, 2009. By May 25, 2010 all 10,500 cubic metres of concrete were placed to complete this structure, with the exception of approximately 1 cu. m of curbs to be poured next summer. Additional work has been completed to install the precast bridge beams on top of the spillway structure. Finally, 500 cu. m of concrete were placed for the downstream spillway transition.
