Dean Construction wraps up dredging at Darlington New Nuclear Plant

Dean Construction completed this year’s work for the water intake structure at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington New Nuclear Plant recently.

The 2025 works included the dredging operations of the intake footprint, the drilling of the shaft for the intake riser, as well as the supply and placement of the steel intake liner and its sealing to the bedrock.

According to Dean, dredging of the hard (blow counts in excess of 100 BPF) glacial till at the intake footprint required the use of a vibrating ripper tooth and the subsequent excavation using rock buckets and a hydraulic clamshell bucket.

All of the pre-treatment and excavation was performed with Dean’s 190t hydraulic excavator from a spud barge.

Approximately 5m of till was removed and the bottom of the excavation was in water depths exceeding 19m.

Dean’s 2026 works on the site will involve pressure-testing the liner, constructing the base for the intake structure, installing the precast concrete intake modules, removing the liner’s cap and placing the final section of the intake.