Fjærland hydropower plants

In Fjærland, six hundred metres up a mountain slope from sea level, we had a construction site where we built the Lidal hydropower plant with its inlets, a tunnel spanning 1,500 metres and a 600-metre-deep shaft.

Since no roads led to the construction site, we transported everything we needed there on boats or helicopters. We brought all equipment and machines to the ferry from where we worked – including heavy machinery, lorries and repair facilities.

In demanding projects, planning and logistics must be handled with extra precaution in order not to exceed the budget and schedule. The weather conditions posed their own challenges. On a construction site like this, it’s even more important than usual to ensure safety, and we were prepared for all kinds of exceptional situations, even evacuation.

Working from a ferry instead of a typical land-based site decreased the direct effects of the construction on the environment. We minimised the environmental effects also in other ways, for instance by purifying the water used on site.

• We built two hydropower plants for energy company Småkraft.
• The contract included shafts and inlets to all six plants to be constructed in the area and approximately 2.5 km of tunnels.
• Special characteristics of the project included the site’s location in an area with no roads and working from a ferry in order to minimise the environmental effects of the construction.
• Approximately 50 employees worked at the Lidal site.

The project was initiated in July 2015 and completed in December 2016.

energy, industrial and water supply construction