Souris Valley Expertise Helps Keep Borea Project on Track

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The Golden South Wind Project, located approximately 175km south west of Regina, Saskatchewan next to the town of Assiniboia, can best be described by two words: tight deadlines!

In the works since 2009, this renewable project received final approval in 2019 and its groundbreaking ceremony took place in August of that year. The project was awarded to Borea Construction, which had a year – until the end of the year of 2020 – to complete it. Borea Construction was up to the challenge. With offices throughout Canada, it has constructed more renewable projects (wind and solar) in Canada than any other contractor.

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The project itself consists of 50 turbines of 4.2 MW. The turbines are designed to be connected through a 34.5 kilovolt (kV) underground collector line system that converges at the proposed wind collector substation. A key component of this energy collection system are the transformer vaults. A total of 50 transformer vaults were required which included a riser and top slab. Each of the completed vault structures weigh in at just under seven metric tonnes.

To ensure the project respected the tight deadline, Borea knew that based on its construction expertise, it had to subcontract out a key component of the wind turbine subsystem. It therefore turned to Souris Valley Industries, a Weyburn-based precast concrete producer with experience in both standard concrete pipe and structures as well as in-depth know-how in producing custom structural elements. Given the rapid installation characteristics of using precast concrete structures as the transformer vaults, Borea felt that Souris Valley Industries was the
right partner for the job.

Notably this project was challenging but Borea was very satisfied with the precast concrete vaults that were produced by Souris Valley Industries.

Souris Valley Industries’ ability to provide engineering and technical support, meet Borea’s demanding production deadline, provide a high-quality product and ensure that the precast transformer vaults arrived on site when required, helped keep the project on schedule.

Borea Construction commends Souris Valley Industries for their contribution to the Golden South Wind Project. Their dedicated staff from the production floor, the engineering department and the management were all very involved throughout the process and were focused on timely delivery of high-quality precast structures.

David Berubé, ing. P.Eng. Project Manager, Borea Construction, General Contractor