John Hart Dam Earthquake Upgrades Could Cost Over $800 Million

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BC Hydro takes a major step toward seismic upgrading of a major dam on Vancouver Island.

The energy provider has announced that it will seek RFPs for a contract to make the massive John Hart Dam in the Campbell River safer in the event of a major earthquake.

The project is not easy.

Construction is expected to run from 2023 until 2029 at a cost of between $497 million and $822 million.

“The John Hart Dam is a key component of BC Hydro’s infrastructure on Vancouver Island,” says Chris O’Reilly, President and CEO of BC Hydro.

“Improvements are required to strengthen the dam so that it can continue to operate safely and reliably.”

In 2016, BC Hydro was forced to buy into homeowners in the sleepy Jordan River town after discovering that a dam above it could fail in an earthquake.

Many homeowners were forced to move to higher ground and land restrictions were imposed on the regional capital area.

A longitudinal study found that the Jordan River Dam was the most at risk of collapse of all BC water dams in the province.

Repairing the damage caused by a possible collapse of the dam would have been so costly that it was considered a secondary option for relocating the city.

BC Hydro began consulting with community and First Nations partners about John Hart’s upgrades in 2014, but this announcement marks the first major step toward protecting the decades-old structure.

John Hart Dam was built in the 1940s. Its height is about 34 meters and its length is more than 800 meters.

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