Valard Construction and NextBridge Resume Work on East-West Tie Line Project

Feb 7, 2019

Ontario’s Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines has designated NextBridge as the transmitter to build a 450-kilometer, double-circuit transmission line from Thunder Bay to Wawa, known as the East-West Tie Line Project. Valard will provide the infrastructure.

The project involves installing a double-circuit 230 kilovolt (kV) transmission line generally paralleling the existing double-circuit 230 kV transmission corridor (the existing East-West Tie) connecting the Wawa Transformer Station (TS) to the Lakehead TS near Thunder Bay, with a connection approximately midway at the Marathon TS. The new route is approximately 450 km long and avoids some sensitive features crossed by the existing line.

In August 2013, NextBridge was designated by the Ontario Energy Board to develop the EWT line and to file a Leave to Construct application. In December of 2017, Nextbridge selected Valard to construct the project, but in February 2018 Hydro One filed a Section 92 application with the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) to design, build and operate the new transmission line.

The Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines announcement comes after a public hearing and consultation process that included expressions of support for the NextBridge/Valard option from the local (Northern Ontario) communities.

Moving forward, Valard will continue to work closely with Supercom Industries, a 100% Aboriginal-owned joint venture by the six First Nations proximate to the East-West Tie transmission line, to hire qualifying candidates from the First Nation communities.

Valard will provide comprehensive construction services, including project management, material management, construction permitting and the construction of double circuit 230 kilovolt transmission line connecting Hydro One’s Wawa Transformer Station, Marathon Transformer Station and Lakehead Transformer Station.

This year the company is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The company was founded by Vic Budzinski, who started as a small powerline contractor in northern Alberta in the late 1970s. That contractor is now Canada’s premier utility service provider, an international EPC company that leads the Valard Group and is part of Quanta Services.