Residents of southeastern Manitoba have been noticing an unusual sight in the sky west of Steinbach over the past few days.

As we mentioned in a story a month ago, an Erickson Air Crane has come to set up towers for the Bipole III project.

Bruce Owen with Manitoba Hydro says huge orange helicopter will continue to be a common sight here in the Southeast for a month to six weeks, depending on the weather conditions. He says the air crane is very interesting sight, but it is important to stay safe when watching it work.

"We fully anticipate people can watch. There are safe areas, people can pull off the roadway and watch that way but we don't want people on the main highway gawking, it is a safety hazard. We encourage people to pull off the shoulder or off on an access road to watch."

Owen says the helicopter is very efficient at setting up the hydro towers and with warmer weather on the way it will be especially handy.

"The helicopter allows us to install towers in warmer weather. Normally when doing this kind of work, we require frozen ground because it makes for easier access for our vehicles, when we have a thaw like that, everything turns to mush and the heavy equipment can't get into sites, the helicopter can."