NAC Constructors Ltd. has been enlisted by the Regional District of Nanaimo to undertake its largest capital project ever.
On Tuesday, the regional district board awarded a $67.9-million contract to the company for construction of secondary treatment facilities at the Greater Nanaimo Pollution Control Centre on Hammond Bay Road.
Wastewater is currently treated chemically, but the upgrades will use mirco-organisms to consume suspended solids in the wastewater leading to effluent that is of higher quality, according to the regional district. It will also allow for greater capacity.
Sean De Pol, regional district manager of wastewater services, said details still need to be hammered out and a pre-construction meeting needs to take place, but among the first projects that will start is site preparation involving soil removal and blasting of rock, followed by ground improvements.
Because it is a treatment plant, it will need to meet stringent requirements for seismic events. Soil will need to meet stability requirements and it will be firmed up by insertion of gravel and stone into the ground, De Pol said.
“In areas that appear to not meet the standard, there’ll be a sleeve that is put over top of the ground and this gravel is hammered into the ground … it actually stabilizes it so that in a very large seismic event, the soils do not become liquifiable, so that would be the next thing that would happen.”
Construction of structures would occur after that, De Pol said.
Any changes to the project above $150,000 of the contract’s value requires board approval, but to avoid delays and cost overruns that would come with waiting for monthly meetings, additional authority was granted to Phyllis Carlyle, chief administrative officer, and Wendy Idema, director of finance, to approve consultant and contractor change orders up to $5.1 million, which is the amount of a contingency fund.
The project will be financed through regional district reserves, development cost charges and borrowing. Work will begin in May and is expected to continue until December 2019.