TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Crews launched a construction barge at Centennial Park in Twin Falls on Friday, marking a major step forward in upgrades to the small hydroelectric power plant at Pillar Falls. The plant's co-owner says the upgrades are essential to keeping the area open to the public.
WATCH: Inside look at the construction barge
Gary Perron, co-owner of Pillar Power Production, said the process of securing permission to use the county boat ramp for the barge launch took six months.
"It's been six months of... Well, I guess you call it 'political torture,'" Perron said, "But we finally got approval, and today we are launching our barge to start bringing a crane up so we can finish the power plant and other equipment that is needed."
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Perron explained that keeping Pillar Falls accessible is the driving motivation behind the project.
"Right now, it cost us quite a bit a month for liability insurance and trail maintenance to keep it open to the public, and our goal is to always keep it open to the public," Perron said.
The county's hesitation stemmed from a desire to protect a recently renovated public space. Bob Beer, Twin Falls County Facilities Director, said the park had just undergone a significant investment.
"We just put about 900-thousand dollars in revamping this park – re-doing the paving – we're trying to protect the public interest...it is obviously a park built for recreational traffic, so there was some controversy over doing this, but the commissioners finally decided to allow it.... we just hope it goes off without a hitch," Beer said.
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With approval secured, crews from Clear Spring Construction took over the Centennial launch early Friday morning and began assembling the barge piece by piece. Due to limited space in the canyon, each section was brought down one at a time.
Perron said the four sections, once assembled, form a 20-by-40-foot platform, 5 feet deep and rated for 50,000 pounds.
"Heaviest load we're putting on it is 45 thousand," Perron noted.
After the sections were joined, a crane was added to the barge, requiring a brief modification to the docks. Once fully assembled, the unit was floated to its temporary location near Pillar Falls.
Perron said the barge will be anchored using large metal spikes and will not pose a hazard to the public.
"There is two giant spuds, which are giant metal spikes that we'll drop down, and it will anchor up... so, it's not going to be a hazard... people can climb on it...fish off of it... just don't start a fire on it please," Perron said.
The method used on Friday mirrors how the original power plant was constructed decades ago.
"It's the same way the original power plant was built, they brought in all their heavy equipment back in 1982 by barge ... we're doing the same thing," Perron detailed.
Perron said the team has an 8 to 12-month window to complete the upgrades to the family-owned power plant.
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