Talk:Bridge River Power Project

In for a penny?
What was the total cost of the project? Trekphiler 07:05, 22 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Meant to add all that stuff, haven't had time, including power output, size of generators, switchyards, buildings, powerline voltages and what-not, who the architects and engineers were and more. Pinning down the exact cost of the project is problematic, as for any megaproject in BC's history, because of the many subcontracts and also ancillary indirect costs that weren't part of the project per se; presumably company books might include the cost of construction of, say, the company towns and camps at Lajoie, Terzaghi, Seton/Shalalth and Lillooet, and might include monies kicked in by the company for the maintenance of the Mission Mountain Road/Bridge River Road, since their heavy trucks were giving it a beating throughout construction (it was not government-maintained or government-built in the first place, but a project of the mines and miners in the area); company books are likely to talk only about the hardware, i.e. the dams and powerhouses and powerlines and so on themselves, not secondary services, esp. those begun by predecessor companies such as the townsite at Shalalth, which was built in the 1920s; and even if so, the value in 1920 dollars is different than the value in 1950 or 2007 dollars, but that's a moot point in general (consider the project, effectively, took 37 years to build because of the hiatus during the Depression).  I'm not sure if Hydro's little brochure-bumpf I used to have has the cost-details, but I know where to ask; but if I get a straight answer who knows....this is the place where the term "voodoo economics" was invented, and also where the Premier of the day is known to have, ahem, kept two sets of books (I'm speaking of WAC Bennett, who was at least up front about it; the project was revived in the days of the Coalition, though, before WAC took power and nationalized it and some of its contractors, e.g. Northern Electric, vs the "core company", the Bridge River Power Company, which was the subcompany of the BC Electric Railway Company, the core company which became BC Hydro.  I'm on the road and haven't been able, even when not on the road, to devote the time to this and related pages as I'd like (my Dad was construction super over the whole project....) but maybe one day, or I can ask someone at Hydro's public relations office, who I'm on loose speaking terms with, to "fill in the blanks" here as you've requested.....Skookum1 08:12, 22 August 2007 (UTC)