Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 86

Project: NAADM and the North
Warning System
The $1.5 billion North American Air Defence Modern-
ization project that would guard against long-range,
low-flying cruise missiles was to include 11 manned
Long Range Radar (LRR) sites and 36 unmanned
automated Short Range Radar (SRR) sites to be built in
Canada. It required over-the-horizon backscatter radars
to provide long range coverage of the western and
eastern coastlines and Forward Operating Locations
(FOLs) for NORAD aircraft, to be built in the Far North,
to allow the aircraft to more effectively and easily
intercept unidentified radar contacts. Airborne Warning
and Control System (AWACS) aircraft would help
coordinate such operations.
The first major contract was awarded during 1985–86,
with construction beginning in earnest the following
fiscal year with the awarding of $98 million worth of
contracts for long range radars at three sites: Cartwright
and Saglek on the Labrador coast and at Brevoort
Island in the Eastern Arctic. Satellite ground terminals
were also built at DEW Line sites that were converting
to NWS use and at CFB North Bay. The Annual Report
that year summarized that:
“ This whole program has been a challenge: since the fall
of 1985, design, contract award, mobilization, erection
of construction camps and a substantial start of
construction were successfully achieved. Working
within tight schedules and short construction seasons,
all those involved, from the owner to the contractors,
met the challenge. This program, which will continue
over the next several years, is characterized by a
harsh environment, extreme isolation and very short
construction seasons, needing meticulous planning
and intensive activity during the construction period.”
In 1985, representatives from the NAADM project
management office and the Department of Indian and
Northern Development toured Northern communities to
provide information about the project. Government
representatives also discussed the role of Northern
The 100-year storm…
firms and residents in the project construction and
operations, a subject about which there was considerable Labrador, mid-1980s—George Moennich
One particular contractor had a contract for work in the
disagreement. The project’s environmental impact
Labrador area. One year they had what’s called a
was also a concern, which marked a change from
100-year storm and he couldn’t dig his equipment out
previous Northern projects and foreshadowed DCC’s
until the middle of the summer—and over there, you
involvement in DEW Line Cleanup and other environmental
have a maximum of two to three months to get work
remediation projects.
done. It financially hurt and it was something that was
totally unusual. By the book, it was his problem. But
when you get into an extraordinary circumstance, it
would not be reasonable—it would not be moral—to
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BREAKING NEW GROUND
DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA