Toldjaso

Back on September 3rd, the Ministry of Truth (Provincial) reported:

Gros Morne Off the Table

It means a longer, more expensive route, but Premier Danny Williams has nixed the idea of building transmission lines through Gros Morne National Park.

Hooray, Premier Danny Williams, for taking off the table the very thing you put on it in the first place, even if certain naysayers point out that the math is all wrong. But in case there was any lingering doubt left, you no longer need to take this corner’s word for it.

NALCO(R)’s former environmental filing for Our Dear Infeed – the route that Our Dear Premier revealed over two months ago he was just “kidding” about – described the island portion of the route in the following, mysteriously copy-protected terms (p. 31 of the file, p. 24 of the document):

The HVdc transmission line will leave the landing site on the Island side of the Strait of Belle Isle, and travel south along the western portion of the Northern Peninsula and then southeast across the Island. It will then cross the Isthmus of Avalon and extend to Soldiers Pond on the northeast Avalon Peninsula for a distance of up to approximately 760 km (depending upon the specific corridor options eventually selected and implemented).*

The new, non-kidding, but equally copy-protected description (p. 32 of the file, p. 24 of the document) reads:

The HVdc transmission line will leave the landing site on the Island side of the Strait of Belle Isle, and travel south along the western portion of the Northern Peninsula and then southeast across the Island. It will then cross the Isthmus of Avalon and extend to Soldiers Pond on the northeast Avalon Peninsula, for a distance of approximately 688 km.*

760 - 688 = 72

Ahem:

So, depending on where the alternative route rejoins the brown main route, the Gros Morne option for getting from the west coast of Newfoundland to central Newfoundland is somewhere between 68 and 74 km longer than the alternative route that ODP says is shorter. And really, who are any of us to doubt Him?

* References to figures omitted.