The assignment consisted of geotechnical investigations to assess the feasibility of a cable tunnel crossing of the 18 km wide Strait of Belle Isle, between Labrador and Newfoundland, for the transmission of power from the Lower Churchill Project. Phase 1 is the Muskrat Falls HEP of 824 MW and Phase 2 is the Gull Island HEP of 2250 MW.

Services included:

• Preparation of technical specifications of tender documents for site investigation work, including inclined core drilling and permeability tests.
• Evaluation of the geological logs of more than 3 km of rock core, the supervision of permeability testing and the preparation of geological reports and tunnel support evaluation.
• Conceptual design of the cable tunnel as a drill & blast tunnel and also as a bored TBM tunnel based on the geotechnical investigations.
• Preparation of a cost estimate for the tunnel construction for these two alternatives.