Listen to this article
Estimated 2 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.
Manitoba Hydro will be chopping down scores of trees next week.
Removing 262 trees along Selkirk Avenue between Keewatin Street and Railway Street is part of efforts to enhance safety and reliability, the provincial Crown corporation said in a Friday news release.
The trees are encroaching on 24,000-volt power lines, according to the release, and contact with the wires has already caused power outages.
Manitoba Hydro spokesperson Peter Chura says removing dangerous trees is critical for worker safety.
“Working around power lines is high hazard work to start with. Our employees are trained and equipped for it,” Chura said. “But trees add an avoidable element of risk and we can address that by putting more effort into vegetation management.”
Tree contact is the second most common cause of power outages.
According to the news release the majority of the trees are Siberian elms, a fast-growing and tall tree incompatible with overhead lines. Trimming them would not give the needed clearance and there is chance of regrowth.
The work is expected to take a couple weeks, Chura says, adding it’s unusual to see so many trees removed at once, though might become more common as Hydro increases vegetation management.
“We’re finding more areas where trees have encroached upon power lines to a dangerous degree,” Chura said.
Earlier this year, Manitoba Hydro announced more of its resources are going toward vegetation management, including trimming and removing trees, brush clearing and selective herbicide use.
Chura says the company spent $13.6 million on vegetation management last year, and are on track to spend at least $27 million this year.