Building The Kapoor Tunnel 1960-69

A 5.5 mile (8.8km) Tunnel built under lakes and mountains to get water to your tap - and still used today.

We tend to take our water supply for granted. You turn on your tap, water flows, and you never think twice. But getting water to the Westshore and Victoria area has been an arduous, long task, dating back to the 1800's. If you've ever been out to Humpback reservoir (Goldstream), remnants of the original concrete flowline from Sooke Lake (built in 1913) to Goldstream can be seen. But for this article, I want to examine a more recent waterflow amazing feat- the Kapoor Tunnel. Raw water from the Sooke Reservoir runs underground through this man made Kapoor tunnel through rock for 8.8 km (5.5 miles) where it connects to the Japan Gulch Disinfection Facility. Many have never heard of it, its importance literally unknown and buried.

For almost half a century the concrete above ground water flowline from Sooke Lake served its purpose. But by the early 1960's it was recognized that the flowline could no longer meet the regions needs. Innovation and change needed to take place, otherwise residents would be deprived of water - our taps would run dry.

Learn about this amazing feat - become a patron for just pennies a day to explore the past.