June 28, 2012

HALTON REGION

Construction of a headworks building, above, is part of the $158-million expansion of the Burlington Skyway Wastewater Treatment Plant.

FEATURE | Sewer and Watermain/Water & Wastewater

Burlington, Ontario skyway wastewater plant buzzes with expansion

DAN O’REILLY

correspondent

The city of Burlington’s only wastewater treatment plant is now a beehive of construction activity that will continue for the next two years.

Located on a 25-acre site on the small peninsula that separates Burlington Bay from Lake Ontario, the Burlington Skyway Wastewater Treatment Plant is undergoing a $158-million expansion which will increase its treatment capacity from 118 to 140 mega-litres a day.

The contractor is North America Construction (1993) Ltd. and the consultant for Halton Region, the plant owner, is CH2M HILL.

Underway since February, the project includes construction of the plant’s first ever tertiary building. The 35,000-cubic-metre structure will feature an ultraviolet system for effluent treatment.

Other work includes the constructions of a grit building, a blower/generator building, a switch gear building, four new secondary clarifiers, two new aeration tanks, plus the installation of new raw sewage pumps, and a retrofit/expansion of the thickening and dewatering building, says North America project manager Jeff van den Brink.

As with any expansion of a wastewater treatment plant — which has to keep operating — there are a host of challenges.

“Much of the work is staged to allow the existing process to remain in operation. We work in the same areas as the operation staff, but delineate our work areas.”

At Skyway there is an extra layer of complexity, however, because some construction activity is occurring four metres below the lake level and considerable dewatering is required, he points out.

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And as the plant is very spread out with little spaces for the various work areas, on-time material delivery is critical. Access to the plant, which is located on Lakeshore Road, is not an issue. But that road is heavily used and trucks are not allowed to be staged there, says van den Brink.

On average, there are 100 workers on site. But when the project hits peak starting in the spring of 2013 and continuing to the fall of that year, that figure will rise to 200, he says.

Built in the 1960s, the plant was expanded in the 1970s and then in again in 2000. But the current expansion is the largest, says Dave Andrews, the region’s director of wastewater services.

Increased infill growth in Burlington, whose population is expected to reach 198,000 people by 2031, is the catalyst for the expansion, says Andrews. The region is also a member of the Hamilton Harbour remedial action plan—the multi-layer government/industry/citizen group working to restore the harbour.

It was first identified as a priority project in a 2008 update of the region’s water and wastewater master servicing plan. An environmental assessment was completed near the end of 2009, followed by an “expedited” design.

The project is being funded on a one-third equal basis by the region and the federal and provincial governments under the green infrastructure program, says Andrews.

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