Hydro towers will stay put on Burlington Beach

The large hydro towers along Burlington Beach are here for the long term.

That’s the conclusion of experts studying Burlington’s future shoreline plans who point to the exorbitant cost involved in eliminating the nine towers as they now stand.

Combined investigations involving Halton Region, the City of Burlington, Conservation Halton and Hydro One Networks have found no current above-ground options to replace the towers. Also, burying the power lines — an option that has been long-favoured in Burlington –would come at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars as well as disturbing the natural aesthetics of the beach.

“…the cost to relocate the existing towers to underground is significant and substantially more than the overall park masterplan implementation costs,” reads a Halton Region report. “As a result, staff recommend that this option no longer be pursued.”

The report suggests that $150 million would be needed at a minimum to bury the power lines but that cost would rise based on acquiring additional property and relocating existing underground services such as water, wastewater and the TransCanada Pipeline.

In 2021 Halton councillors budgeted $23 million for tower relocation costs which is far below the new estimates.

At a recent Region of Halton meeting, councillors were surprised at the new cost estimates with some pointing to long-term technical innovations as a possible future solution.

After the meeting, one councillor told inhalton.com that while burying the hydro lines is still an option, local politicians are not likely willing to pay for the costs involved