Site C’s overruns are typical for dam megaprojects
A root cause of cost overruns for the Site C dam and other hydro megaprojects is political “bias” and “optimism,” a report suggests . | BC Hydro
Premier John Horgan assumed the demeanour of a physician delivering bad news to a patient when he revealed the findings of Peter Milburn’s review of the Site C dam project.
Horgan announced February 26 that the government will finish building the hydroelectric megaproject, despite new estimates that now put the cost of completing the project at $16 billion.
The capital cost of the dam had already jumped from $8.6 billion under the BC Liberal government, to $10.7 under the BC NDP, and hit its most recent estimate thanks to pandemic-related delays and some troublesome geotechnical challenges.