Muskrat Falls reaches milestone with marine cable installation in the Strait of Belle Isle

A critical component of the Muskrat Falls project began Monday with the installation of marine cables in the Strait of Belle Isle.

These cables will link the new transmission line from Labrador to the islandand will carryelectricity from Muskrat Falls to the Avalon Peninsula.

• A look at Nalcor's marine Labrador-island cable crossing

The first piece of cable had been safely and successfully pulled more than one kilometer through a conduit that was drilled from the seafloor to the shore at Forteau, according to a statement released byNalcor Monday afternoon.

This is the beginning of a two-month campaign that will connect,via three cables on thesea floor, the Labrador community ofForteau and Shoal Cove,on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland.

"We couldn't be more proud of the team for this achievement,"Greg Fleming, marine crossings project manager with the Lower Churchill Project, said in astatement.

"Getting to this point has been years in the making, and it's great to finally reach such an important and historic milestone for the project and the province."

The installation not only marks a milestone for the controversial hydroelectric project, it also broke a world record.

According to Nalcor, the conduits at Forteau, which are 1,300 m long and in 70 m of water, are more than 1.5 times longer than the current record and are in more than double the water depth.

All marine cable installation activities in the Strait of Belle Isle are scheduled for completion in fall 2016.