Street by street: Sewage line route chosen The 18.5-kilometre route of a sewage sludge pipeline from McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt to Hartland landfill in Saanich has been released by Seaterra. [See map below.] This comes as Esquimalt council is weighing whether to approve rezoning of McLoughlin Point to allow construction of a wastewater treatment plant. Seaterra, which is overseeing construction of the region’s sewage-treatment system, says the pipe is needed to carry solids left over from treatment at McLoughlin to a resource recovery centre at Hartland. What will happen to the solids is still being decided, but they could be converted into a coal substitute. Twin high-density polyethylene pipes will be buried along a route that follows road rights-of-way in Esquimalt, Victoria and Saanich, said Malcolm Cowley, project manager. Each segment will be welded to the next one, “and it’s as if it’s one continuous length of pipe,” he said. One pipe will carry sludge, the other will carry water from Hartland after solids are removed. “Local roads will always be open to local traffic, but we would not want to have major traffic going through there,” Cowley said. Work is expected to begin in the summer of 2015 and take two years. A request for proposals has not been sent out yet. A detailed schedule will become available once the contract is awarded, Cowley said. Seaterra opted for the pipeline and Hartland location for sludge processing after a proposal for a facility on Viewfield Road in Esquimalt, much closer to McLoughlin, was scuttled amid intense opposition from nearby residents. The route to Hartland from McLoughlin crosses Lyall Street, onto Head Street, Wollaston Street, Hereward and Dominion roads, Burleith Crescent, west on Selkirk Avenue, north on Tillicum Road, along Vincent Avenue, Bodega Road, Ker Avenue, Newbury Street, Colquitz Avenue, Admirals Road, Trans-Canada Highway, Grange Road to Interurban Road, West Saanich Road and Willis Point Road. Construction may start with crews working at two or three points simultaneously. The pipe might not be installed under roads but buried within the road allowances, Cowley said. The eight-inch-diameter pipe comes in lengths that fit on a flatdeck trailer. About 50 to 100 metres of pipe is expected to be buried each day at a depth of 1.3 metres. The two bridges along the route, Tillicum and Admirals, will have the pipe installed to the underside of the bridge deck. The Trans-Canada Highway will not be excavated; instead, the pipes will likely be installed using an auger to drill a tunnel underneath. Grange Road was chosen because Saanich is installing a water main at about the same time as the sewage line. Effluent will be pumped from 10 metres above sea level to 50 metres using pump stations. Pumps will be underground, with electronic components and backup generators on the surface, housed in metal boxes 1.3 metres wide, 1.3 metres high and 0.6 metres deep. Locations have not been chosen but they don’t have to be adjacent to homes, Cowley said.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 16:29:41 +0000
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