February 11, 2010

REGION OF PEEL

Expansion of the Clarkson Wastewater Treatment Plant in south Mississauga will occur while the plant is still in operation.

FOCUS | Water & wastewater

Peel Region begins expansion of Clarkson Wastewater Treatment Plant

DAN O’REILLY

correspondent

With the construction completion of a 2.2-kilometre-long outfall tunnel into Lake Ontario in November, Peel Region is now proceeding with a massive three-year $160-million expansion of its Clarkson Wastewater Treatment Plant in south Mississauga.

Needed to meet rapid residential growth occurring west of the Credit River in Mississauga and Brampton, the expansion will increase the plant’s treatment capacity from 200 to 350 megalitres a day, says William Fernandes, the region’s capital works manager for wastewater treatment.

Some of the components of the project include the construction of primary tanks, aeration tanks, final tanks, and the installation of maze equipment, plus associated piping and electrical connections. There will be at least nine below-ground concrete tanks.

As the plant is located on a large property on the north side of Lakeshore Road, there is plenty of space for the expansion which will occur on the northeast quadrant.

Earlier this winter, earthworks and site preparation by Woodbridge-based Gentile Contracting Ltd. got underway. The site work includes the creation of berms for a community recycling centre which will be built on the southwest corner of the sprawling property.

The recycling centre is not connected with the operation of the plant and will be built under a totally separate contract.

However, it is a regional facility and locating it there saves the region land acquisitions costs had it be built somewhere else, explains Fernandes.

Design work will start this spring and there will be plenty of upcoming opportunities for the construction industry. To make the project more manageable, obtain more competitive bids and to accommodate trades with different specialities, it will be divided into at least four and possibly five contracts, he says.

“There will be quite a bit of mechanical and civil work needed.”

Construction will ramp up later this year, with the peak of the work lasting from about mid-2011 until about the same period in 2012. With commissioning and other final work, it won’t be until 2013 before the project is totally complete and the enlarged facility operational, says Fernandes.

Although the Clarkson plant is situated in what is primarily an industrial area, precautions will still have to be taken to minimize construction noise and odour exposure to nearby residential areas, he points out.

“The major complications will be ties-in with existing sewer lines. We can’t stop the plant. It has to be kept operating at all times,” says Fernandes, when asked about the main challenges.

The need for the expansion was first identified in a waste and wastewater master plan the region produced in the late 1990s. But that growth couldn’t proceed before the outfall tunnel was in place to accommodate the treated sewage.

As the tunnel was being built by general contractor C&M McNally Engineering Corp, the environmental assessment for the expansion was conducted, says Fernandes.

“Everything fit to a T.”

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