This hydroelectric earthfill dam on the Peace River includes several components: an earthfill dam 1,050 metres long and 60 metres high, a 1,100-MW generating station and associated structures, an 83-kilometre-long reservoir, realignment of six sections of Highway 29, and two 77-kilometre transmission lines along an existing transmission line right-of-way, connecting Site C to the existing provincial power grid.
On February 26, 2021, the B.C. government announced a revised cost estimate of $16 billion and an expected one-year delay in the project’s in-service date (now 2025). The updated budget was approved by the provincial Treasury Board in June. Because of delays and impacts related to the pandemic, COVID-19 is the single largest contributor to the cost increase.
Despite the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project continued to advance in 2021. In the generating station and spillways civil works area, construction progressed with the ongoing placement of concrete in the powerhouse, intakes and spillways; installation of the penstock segments; and construction of the steel super-structure for the powerhouse. In the main civil works area, river diversion was successfully achieved in October 2020, and the upstream and downstream cofferdams were completed to their final elevations in spring 2021. Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) placements resumed at the dam and core buttress on the right bank; the entire RCC program is on track to be completed in fall 2021. Placements of dam core and fill material began on the left, centre section and right banks of the earthfill dam. Excavations in the approach channel also continued.
