Aecon’s AFDE Partnership wins $1.22bn contract for BC Hydro Site C project

Aecon in consortium with Flatiron Constructors Canada, Dragados Canada, and EBC (together called as the AFDE Partnership) has bagged a major contract of CAD 1.6 billion ($ 1.22 billion) for BC Hydro Site C project in Canada.

The BC Hydro Site C project, also known as the Site C Clean Energy Project, is a dam and a 1.1GW hydro power station, which is being constructed on the Peace River in British Columbia province.

Site C hydroelectric project cost is CAD10.7 billion ($ 8.2 billion) and once fully operational, is expected to generate 5,100GWh of clean electricity.

Under its contract, AFDE Partnership will deliver civil works concerning the powerhouse, spillways, penstocks and power intakes, along with associated ancillary construction work of the BC Hydro Site C project.

The Site C hydro project will see the use of nearly 700,000 cubic meters of mass and reinforced concrete, 34,000 tonnes of rebar, and more than 11,000 tonnes of steel, said the Canadian construction company Aecon.

BC Hydro Site C project’s powerhouse will house half a dozen generators with an aggregate capacity of 1,100MW, with corresponding intake structures connected to it by means of penstocks, which will each be 80m long and will have a diameter of 10m.

Aecon says that the partnership’s construction work at the Site C hydroelectric project is slated to start in the spring of 2018, and likely to be wrapped up in early 2023. The Canadian construction company added that during the peak construction phase in 2021, as many as 1,600 people working on the Generating Station and Spillways civil works.

John M. Beck – President and CEO of Aecon Group, commenting on the BC Hydro Site C project contract, said: “The award of this project demonstrates the strong and diverse backlog of Aecon’s Infrastructure segment.

“We are pleased to once again work with our esteemed client BC Hydro and look forward to delivering this vital hydroelectric infrastructure with our valued partners.”

Mark Rivett – Executive Vice President of Aecon Infrastructure, added: “With Aecon’s work nearing completion on BC Hydro’s John Hart Generating Station project, we look forward to leveraging our seasoned capabilities to execute the Site C generating station and spillways civil works.”

Illustration of the BC Hydro Site C project on the Peace River in British Columbia. Image courtesy of Acciona.

The contract won by the AFDE Partnership is the second biggest given by BC Hydro for the Site C hydroelectric project. In 2015, it handed over a contract worth about $1.75 billion to Peace River Hydro Partners, an entity formed by ACCIONA Infrastructure Canada and Samsung C&T Canada, to carry out the main civil works of the BC Hydro Site C project.

BC Hydro has given two more contracts for the Site C hydroelectric project, a $25.2 million contract to F&M Installations for the construction of the Site C substation, and a $17.6 million contract to Reel Coh.

Under its contract, Reel Coh will be responsible for designing, supplying and commissioning of the generating station and spillways powerhouse bridge along with gantry cranes for the BC Hydro Site C project.