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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The NWT Power Corporation says all repairs to its damaged Snare Lake transmission lines are complete.

Keith Boran, left, and Dean Hopewith with the NWT Power Corporation, seen here Feb. 22, have been working to repair transmission lines from the Snare Lake hydro plant that were cut after a military helicopter struck the lines on Feb. 13 during Exercise Arctic Ram. - photo courtesy of NWT Power Corporation

Power corp. had expected the repairs to take 10 days but finished a day ahead of their estimated schedule on Feb. 23.

Repairs were needed after a Canadian Forces Griffon helicopter struck transmission lines about 10 km northwest of Yellowknife during a military training exercise on the evening of Feb. 13.

No one on the helicopter was hurt and it returned safely to the Yellowknife airport after the accident.

The repairs were completed at about 10:30 a.m. in the morning (last Thursday) but it still required switching at the Smiley Lake tap to be able to re-energize that section of line," said Robert Schmidt, power corp.'s director of hydro region.

He said after the lines were re-energized, the process of placing the hydro units online one at a time took about four hours.

As far as an estimate for the repair bill, which power corp. intends to send to the Department of National Defence, Schmidt said that's something that is still being worked out.

"The last invoices are coming in now, so we should have everything finalized ... I'm going to say within the next five to 10 days," Schmidt said.

He praised the work of the nine contractors from Alberta-based Valard Construction, power corp.'s own crew of four linesmen, its support staff and other contractors for the quick work getting everything back up and running.

"The repairs went really well. Everyone worked really well together as a team. Like our staff, the contractors we hired, the local contractors we hired for traveling back and forth to site, the equipment rental companies in Yellowknife ... everything went really, really well. So, there were no obstacles holding up the work," said Schmidt.

"Certainly the community supported us in this, and it was good to see everyone pulling together."

Brendan Bell, chair of power corp., echoed Schmidt's sentiment.

"We were first very, very fortunate that the accident wasn't worse and there wasn't more damage," said Bell.

"We feel very confident that it's done now, and I can tell you, I am very, very proud of the work that the organization did and very thankful that the community came together the way it did to help us manage loads, keep us out of some of the trouble spots during peak periods of the day."

He said even after the incident, as a Northerner, he's happy to have the armed forces conducting exercises here.

"Listen, I guess as a citizen and a resident of the North, I am very grateful that they are conducting exercises in the North," said Bell.

"You know, I think that the DND presence here is a welcome one and we rely heavily on DND throughout the North for search and rescue assistance and leadership, and that is a very real part of life in the North."

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said it will take a bit of time for the city to send in its bill to the military.

"We have to determine what was spent and compare it to a comparative time period and you have to prove it ... basically provide them with all the information as to what got spent," said Van Tighem.

Van Tighem said he didn't want to guess as to what the cost for the city might be, but would be happy to have the Canadian Forces back to conduct exercises in Yellowknife.

"They've already been invited back," said Van Tighem.

While power corp. did warn residents there might be rolling outages following the accident, none were necessary.

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