September 15th was a beautiful day at Box Canyon Dam.  The weather could not have been better and the last of four dam turbine replacements went silky smooth.  Pat Carroll, the Project Manager for our contract with Pend Oreille County PUD #1, was like a proud parent on their kid's graduation day as he walked Tim Schauer and me out of the visitor center, geared up in hard hats, safety glasses, and boots. He led us toward the dam where the final preparations were being made to lower a new, high efficiency turbine into place.  This day was the culmination of many months of planning, coordination, and just plain hard work required to make this very complex project look easy. 

Pat recently celebrated his 26th anniversary with MacKay Sposito and has spent the last two years diligently keeping the project on track for our client.   Pat relocated from his home in Vancouver to Metaline Falls, a short drive from the project site and less than 20 miles from the Canadian border in NE Washington for the project.   It’s a long way from home and Pat said during the first week he was onsite, it was -10 degrees!  Luckily the next day was +10 which felt pretty warm according to Pat.

While Box Canyon is a relatively small hydro facility when compared to the big boys on the Columbia, the engineering is still impressive. Pat did a great job showing us around the dam and highlighting some of the historical elements and how new technology was integrated into the project.   All along the way during the tour, Pat continuously was saying hello to the people doing the work, contractor staff, and PUD staff and several friendly conversations happened along the way.  It was obvious he has been providing regular care and feeding of all of these relationships.

Definitely the highlight of the trip was seeing the new turbine installed. It was a slow, careful process.  Imagine trying to thread a needle that weighed 50 tons.    Obviously, this turbine replacement wasn’t easy, but with the right people on the job, like Pat, it looked easy.