Metro Vancouver set to OK contract for Stanley Park water main project

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The cost to replace the aging water main that runs deep beneath Stanley Park has risen to $495 million as Metro Vancouver prepares to approve contracts for the job, according to the most recent report.

The existing main, Capilano Main No. 4, is a 1.8-metre-diameter steel pipe that runs beneath the park and carries half the drinking water used in the City of Vancouver and one third of the entire region’s supply.

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Originally built in the 1932, however, the 92-year-old main is approaching the end of its service life at a time Metro Vancouver and its member municipalities are grappling with how to replace aging infrastructure.

Metro Vancouver directors will deliberate awarding a $318.2 million main contract for construction of the Stanley Park water supply tunnel at the same time Calgary is finishing repairs on a burst water main that cut that city off from the water treatment plant that handled 60 per cent of its water.

Metro Vancouver’s staff wants to award the contract to a consortium under the name Burrard-Chilco Partnership, which includes the EBC Inc. engineering and construction firms Pomerleau Inc. and Spie Batignolles Canada Inc.

“(The water main) has been known for a long time as being a potential concern,” said Troy Vassos, a lecturer in civil engineering at the University of B.C.

The pipe was Greater Vancouver’s first major connection to North Shore reservoirs and it remains critical for a lot of the region, particularly the western half of the city’s downtown core, Vassos said.

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“You’ve got sensitive public issues regarding how you go through Stanley Park or what route you’re going to take,” he added.

Capilano Main No. 4 was among the 10 per cent of mains classified as being in ‘poor’ condition in Metro’s 2022 inventory of its water assets, according to regional district officials in an unattributed statement offered in response to Postmedia questions.

So replacing it is high on Metro’s list of priorities as the regional district upgrades its drinking water system, which includes replacing aging infrastructure and keeping up with regional growth.

Planning and design for the Stanley Park tunnel has been underway since late 2016, not long after the existing main suffered a major leak that poured 430,000 litres a day of chlorinated water into Lost Lagoon and closed a lane of the Stanley Park Causeway for weeks while it was repaired.

Before detailed planning began, estimates in 2016 put the cost of the tunnel at about $125 million. But that assumed construction would begin in 2021. More recently, Metro put a $395 million price tag on the project in its 2024-2028 capital plan.

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The replacement will be a 1.4-km tunnel that will run between 40 and 60 metres below ground between a point just north of Lumbermen’s Arch in the park to just east of Lost Lagoon, which will contain a 2.6-metre-diameter main that is expected to double the line’s capacity.

Construction will involve sinking three shafts, one near Lumbermen’s Arch, one at the Vancouver park board’s maintenance yard in the middle that will serve as the project’s central base and one at the edge of the park at Chilco Street with work expected to run into 2029.

Neighbours to that third shaft in the West End expressed concerns last fall to Global News about the impact noise, dust and traffic from construction will have during years of construction.

The Stanley Park tunnel will be the fourth major water project Metro Vancouver has underway following its start last December on the main boring work on the Annacis water tunnel project, a 2.3 kilometre link between New Westminster and Surrey.

According to Metro Vancouver, the budget for the Stanley Park project, last stated as $395 million, needs to be increased $100 million due to “market conditions and (cost) escalation,” chiefly material costs, supply chain issues and the complexities of working in Stanley Park.

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“The overall project includes an appropriate contingency, therefore no increases to the budget are anticipated,” according to Metro’s statement.

depenner@postmedia.com

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