Niagara Tunnel project nears completion
by Rebecca Reid
Expected to last more than 100 years.
TORONTO—The 10.2-kilometre (km) concrete lining of the four-storey Niagara Tunnel has now been finished, officials announced today.
Buried somewhere within the 500,000 cubic metres of concrete used to line the tunnel is a time capsule created by grade two students at Port Weller School in Niagara Falls. The capsule will be opened in 50 years.
When the Niagara Tunnel is completed in 2013, water from the Niagara River will surge through the tunnel at a rate of 500 metres-per-second, fast enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in only seconds. The water will flow to the Sir Adam Beck Generating Station at a rate of 500 cubic metres per second, supplying Ontario with enough electricity to run 160,000 homes.
“Ontario has harnessed Niagara Falls as a source of clean energy for more than 100 years and will continue to do so for 100 more when the tunnel is completed in a year,” Chris Bentley, Minister of Energy, says.
This renewable energy project is the largest in the world, officials say, and has resulted in about $1 billion in benefits to the region.
