Construction starts on Nunavik hydro project – Nunatsiaq News

COVID-19-related restrictions prevent project leads from hiring local workers

Construction on Inukjuak’s hydro dam project is finally underway.

Since early July, residents of the Hudson coast community might have noticed blasting and heavy machinery traffic at a site outside town by the Inukjuak River.

That’s the future home of a 7.5-megawatt run-of-the-river dam—the Innavik hydro project—which is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. The plan is for Innavik to supply almost all the energy needed to power the community of 1,800, which currently relies on diesel.

Workers with CST Construction have begun building a road extension to the dam site, constructing a bridge that will serve as an access road across the river, as well as excavating rock along the river’s shore to build a foundation for a power station.