The Cleusone-Dixence hydropower plant in Switzerland has finally resumed power generation after almost ten years of inactivity. The power plant was formerly shut down due to the need for repairs on the main shaft which transported water from the upper level reservoirs. The crack was at a very difficult place, located inside the shaft structures within the mountain. The construction work that had to be performed to repair the damaged shaft soon turned out to be a major repair project, which demanded a large-scale overhaul of the shaft system. The system is about 17 km long, and the initial crack occured at about the 16th km, very near the end where the shaft enters the hydropower station.

Bilfinger Berger was chosen to perform the repair activities on the project. Ten years and four hundred steel pipes later, the shaft is now operational once again, feeding water to the hydroturbines at the power station (officially; the water flow has been restored in January this year initially).

As the result of this project, Bilfinger Berger has added a new division to its services business, through the acquisition of MCE in 2009, the company which was awarded the Cleusone-Dixence project.

[source: Bilfinger Berger]