A $3-million pipe upgrade project is scheduled to take place this summer at the Greater Nanaimo Pollution Control Centre off Hammond Bay Road.
At its committee of the whole meeting earlier this month, Regional District of Nanaimo directors voted to award Knappett Industries the $2.13-million construction contract. AECOM will be awarded a $240,000 contract to oversee the project to replace the outfall and primary effluent line, which is reaching the end of its service life and failing in some areas. Other associated costs include tree removal and landscape restoration.
The project will be paid for primarily by a $2-million federal gas tax grant while the remaining $1 million will come from general and development cost charge reserves.
According to Sean De Pol, regional district manager of wastewater services, the current 91-centimetre diameter steel pipe will be replaced by 142-cm synthetic pipe, with capacity for 160,000 people.
The project will include work at Morningside Park and a tennis court near Shores Drive, which will have to be rebuilt, according to De Pol. It will also include a new trail and the replacement of a steel culvert, which he said said will be good for aquatic life.
There will be traffic disruptions to Morningside Drive. Scheduling will be finalized once the board gives its final approval later this month, said De Pol.
“The requirement will be to essentially tear up that road completely and for a period of time, it will be inaccessible to vehicles, so we’re putting plans in place, first of all for the residents on the other side of where this work is being done to allow them to have access to their properties and then secondly the park ... to minimize the impact that we have to people that want to access that park,” said De Pol.
The aim is to have road work in the summer to avoid the extra pressure that would be created by school traffic and to work within a fishery time frame, which De Pol said is by Sept. 15.