Public safety is becoming a concern for BC Hydro as they remove old and abandoned Puntledge River hydroelectric works, including the old sections of the concrete penstock, anchor blocks and the old powerhouse building. And they say the project site work is ramping up.
“Our contractor, which is an FMI and K’omoks First Nation joint venture, is doing good work and the project is moving along as planned,” says BC Hydro spokesperson, Stephen Watson.
“However, we are seeing about two-dozen people per day entering a closed construction site and walking by the operating equipment. We have employed spotters by the operating equipment for safety and to date we have avoided near-misses, but we are worried that may change as activities increase and people continue to not obey the signage.”
Watson said they have construction closures signs all over the 5 km penstock corridor and the various adjacent trails systems that interface the corridor. Some people are choosing to ignore the warnings.
“We are working during the day and are asking people to hold off from entering the 5 km penstock corridor until after 5:30 pm,” says Watson.“Having said that we really don’t want people in there at all. We have had a vandalism incident. Most people have been good about this temporary project closure and have stayed away, and we really appreciate that.
“We hope the people that haven’t been think about it a bit more and take their personal safety more seriously. We will be approaching people more proactively to ask them to please leave the site.”