The City of Nanaimo will pump more cash into a sewage pump station upgrade project.
City staff brought a report on the Seventh Street pump station to a finance committee meeting Wednesday, Feb. 21, to raise the budget for a capacity upgrade project from $538,000 to $1.024 million.
The pump station at Seventh Street and Park Avenue, completed in October 2021, was designed to be expanded to meet the city’s future growth, but almost immediately had its capacity challenged by a major rainfall event in November 2021.
The storm, combined with faster-than-anticipated development in the area, means pump station upgrades are needed years ahead of the predicted 2031 upgrade requirement.
“It’s happening a lot sooner than we thought it would, partially due to growth, but also partially due to the rainstorm that we saw in November of ‘21 where it actually overwhelmed the system,” said Bill Sims, the city’s general manager of engineering and public works. “It’s not ideal, but a number of connections allow rainwater into the system.”
He said the budget increase is due to the complexity of changing pumps at a live working station and aluminum and stainless steel fabrication associated with the project that came in at much higher cost than anticipated.
Coun. Sheryl Armstrong asked if other communities are experiencing project costs coming in over what they were originally bid.
Sims said since the start of the pandemic, “crazy escalation” has been seen all over North America, but the good news is consumer price indexes are starting to come down and construction costs are “starting to flat-line” so projects are coming in on budget more consistently.
Coun. Janice Perrino asked if the upgrade will provide enough capacity to meet future sewage volumes from development and weather.
“At this point it’ll serve for the next decade or two…” Sims said. “Growth in the Chase River area … the conversion of the DND property to reserve land, the growth desired at [Vancouver Island University], as well as the unknown impact of the transit-oriented areas as the result of the new housing builds by the province is going to place a lot of pressure on our downstream sewer system. So the final answer to that question is still to be determined.”
That committee voted unanimously to recommend council increase the budget for the pump station by $450,000, to be funded by $288,000 from the sewer development cost charges reserve fund and $162,000 from the sewer asset management reserve fund.
READ ALSO: City of Nanaimo purposely bursts sewer pipe for trenchless infrastructure upgrade