Many locals in and around Saskatchewan Landing provincial park know it as "Power Island".

The man-made island sits in the middle of Lake Diefenbaker; home to a now 50-year-old transmission tower of wood and wire.

Now the wooden structure is getting a facelift and a couple of long-overdue upgrades.

SaskPower announced yesterday that they would be making what they call a "significant investment" to enhance the power line and transmission tower in a job that is set to last until April of this year.

Joel Cherry is a spokesperson for SaskPower:

"The existing line has wood structures.  The upgrades will mean that it has steel structures.  The line is going to be higher, which will also improve safety for people who are using the park for recreational opportunities, boaters especially.  And importantly for everyone in the area including Swift Current, you're all going to benefit from increase reliability.  This old line might be prone to outages, whereas the new line will be upgraded and should be a more reliable source of power for all of our customers in the area."

Cherry added that in the grander scheme of infrastructure, 50 years is most definitely on the older side and the age when they certainly want to look at investing in upgrading them.

The line in question runs from Coteau Creek Hydroelectric Station to the Swift Current Switching station.

Cherry says that while the work is scheduled to take until April, the bulk of the work will be completed while the lake is frozen and that winter-time has a distinct advantage when doing a job of this nature.

"The bulk of the work is going to happen right around now so they can take advantage of the water being frozen.  That helps to use the water itself...the ice, I guess as a platform to operate out of, and it also helps to minimize the impact to the environment."

When all is said and done, the improvements will include new steel structures, lightning protection equipment, and increased line-height across the water from 13 metres to 21 metres in order to better accommodate boaters' ability to pass underneath.

The total cost of the improvements will reportedly clock in at $8 million.