Kootenay Lake Crossing is a powerline crossing of

Kootenay Lake Kootenay Lake is a lake located in British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Kootenay River. The lake has been raised by the Corra Linn Dam and has a dike system at the southern end, which, along with industry in the 1950s–70s, has changed th ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The idea was to transport electricity from the Hydro dam on the Kootenay River at Brilliant to the Cominco Sullivan Mine at Kimberley. The most direct route was across Kootenay Lake. Originally it was with a

span Span may refer to: Science, technology and engineering * Span (unit), the width of a human hand * Span (engineering), a section between two intermediate supports * Wingspan, the distance between the wingtips of a bird or aircraft * Sorbitan ester ...

width of the longest powerline span of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and fixed on three - for each conductor a single one - 19 metres tall towers at the west shore and a tall

electricity pylon A transmission tower, also known as an electricity pylon or simply a pylon in British English and as a hydro tower in Canadian English, is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line. In electrical ...

on the east shore. This tower was erected in spite of high mountains on the east shore for building short towers were available, as erecting span terminal towers on them would have required a longer span, for which the use of spliced conductors were required, which was undesired as the splicing point is a potential point of failure. Roebling cable provided the steel support cable for the conductor. The height of conductor over Kootenay Lake was . Kootenay Lake Crossing was inaugurated in 1952, but on March 8th, 1962 the huge tower on the east shore was destroyed by explosives placed by the Sons of Freedom religious sect of the

Doukhobor The Doukhobours or Dukhobors (russian: духоборы / духоборцы, dukhobory / dukhobortsy; ) are a Spiritual Christian ethnoreligious group of Russian origin. They are one of many non-Orthodox ethno-confessional faiths in Russia an ...

s. As at those days longer unspliced conductor ropes were available, one did not to rebuilt the destroyed tower, but built as replacement a 19 metres tall tower triple like that on the west shore of Kootenay Lake on a higher area on the east shore. The powerline is still in operation today, but today with 63 kV instead of 170 kV as originally proposed.

Coordinates of Powerline Crossing Triples

* East shore: 49°42'2"N 116°51'59"W * West shore: 49°42'29"N 116°54'44"W

External links

* http://kootenay-lake.ca/seasons/chronology/ * http://www.bigdoer.com/1287/odds-and-ends/kootenay-lake-power-lines/ * https://www.inmr.com/ageing-lake-crossing-presents-range-asset-management-issues/ Electric power transmission systems in Canada Powerline river crossings West Kootenay Doukhobors Buildings and structures in British Columbia Energy in British Columbia {{BritishColumbia-stub