Construction and Service
Construction started in 1956 and proceeded quickly. By April 1957 the eastern half was operational, and the line was declared fully operational on January 1, 1958. Operations were shortly integrated into the newly-formed NORAD. Even the SEG's revised estimates turned out to be too low, and the fence's final cost is estimated at $224,566,830.
It was not long before the RCAF started to have reservations about the costs of maintaining the Line. Although technically more capable than Pinetree, the MCL gave little information in terms of planning a response or vectoring interceptors to their targets, these tasks still required the Pinetree radars much further south. The extra time offered by the MCL was not considered worth the trouble of keeping the line operational. Even before the line became operational, in a repeat of earlier history, a new and more capable line was already under study that would combine the plotting capability of the Pinetree system with the line-breaking capabilities of the MCL, and located much further north to dramatically improve the detection and response times. Emerging as the Distant Early Warning Line, or DEW, construction started before the MCL had become operational.
When the DEW line became operational in 1957 the value of the MCL was eroded, and the RCAF started pressing for it to be dismantled. The USAF disagreed, but the western half of the line was shut down in January 1964, leaving the eastern half to help defend the industrial areas of Canada and the US. However as the Soviet Union moved their offensive capability to ICBMs it became clear that both the MCL and Pinetree systems were of limited use, and the entire Mid-Canada line was shut down in April 1965.The operations site located at Cranberry Portage, Manitoba, for example, has been converted into a high school and residence since active operations at the site closed in the mid-1960s.
Interestingly the MIDIZ remains administratively operational, although transit across it is not enforced.
Read more about this topic: Mid-Canada Line
Famous quotes containing the words construction and/or service:
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—Gus Van Sant, U.S. screenwriter and director, and Dan Yost. Bob Hughes (Matt Dillon)
“Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune, or “broken heart,” is excuse for cutting off one’s life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)