Manitoba Hydro prepares residents near new station for implosions

Work continues by Manitoba Hydro to get the new station West of Portage la Prairie to operational standards. Work to begin fusing lines together begins on July 2, and Riley McDonald, a spokesperson for Manitoba Hydro, shares how that happens.

“Implosion sleeves are typically used to fuse an overhead line to another line or to a dead end. It’s a tube with some explosives in it that when it goes off it permanently fuses two lines together and so we use these because they’re fast and they create a permanent connection and they’re very reliable. The previous methods would take hours, whereas this is the setup and the go once the once the button is pressed it’s almost instant. The implosions are happening right around with Wash’ake Mayzoon Station.”

The name of the station come from two words, Wash’ake, which is a Dakota word for power, and Mayzoon, a Michif word for house. While these words together wouldn’t make sense in either language, Manitoba Hydro says that they represent a new way of working together on transmission projects.

McDonald adds that over the course of nine days at the start of July, residents in the area can expect to hear around 100 implosions going on southeast of the junction of Highways 1 & 16.

“If you’re fairly close to the station, hearing protection couldn’t hurt. We’re, obviously, not recommending people stand around and watch it. So, hearing protection couldn’t hurt if you’re nearby, but generally speaking, if you’re a safe distance, these things are similar in sound to a firework.”

The events will occur starting July 2 through 5, and then restart on July 8 until July 10.

The video below shows how they are used. (Credit: Manitoba Hydro)