City's waterline infrastructure plans capture the attention of Industrial publication

The city's Woodworth Lake
Dam and waterline project
is getting some attention 
from a Business publication
(photo from City of
Prince Rupert annual report)

The challenge of replacing a water line system that is over 100 years old is one has capture the attention of a writer for a Western Canada based publication that highlights transportation and industrial developments.

The City's Woodworth Lake Waterline replacement project  recently found itself listed among the items of interest for a recent online article from the widely read Journal of Commerce.

The review of the city's plans comes from Peter Kenter, as part of his look into the project Kenter traces some of the history of the water line first built in 1909, grabbing some background notes from a number of city officials to explain how the project will move forward, phase, by phase, by phase.

As it's a a publication that deals mostly with the industrial side of project development, the work of Kledo construction, the company that is based out of Fort St. John and which was awarded the 6.9 million dollar project makes for  the bulk of the articles theme.

Brent Doyle, the owner of Kledo construction provides for some of the unique challenges that the project poses as it works towards a tight timeline of 145 days which got underway in April.

Among some of the prep work that is reviewed is the work required to put the pipeline itself in place and some of the logistical pieces that are required for a project of this scale, including the use of a nearby lumber sorting yard for staging for the project elements.

From that site, barges will be used to transport soil, HDPE pipe, fusing equipment and construction vehicles to the site. By the time the project is complete it's anticipated that Kledo will have unloaded between 100 and 120 barges of material and equipment.

One of the unique aspects of the project is that the company can't trench or excavate the area and instead has arranged to bring in top soil from Spring Creek Aggregates in Terrace, such is the challenge of bringing the pipeline across the terrain that in some places along the route the company will need to be laying soil as deep as five metres.

Doyle makes note of how his company's past experience in Northern British Columbia and the Northwest Territories and how those jobs have provided them with the background to tackle the City's waterline project.

The article also reviews the city's financing plans for the project, noting that the 8.6 million dollars required to this point will come from federal and provincial grants from the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund, with 1.5 million of the total to be supplied by the Prince Rupert Legacy Fund.

The first and second phases of the project are destined to be followed by the final stage of the three part replacement plan, with the City currently in the process of applying for funding to replace the water supply lines that travel under the water to Seal Cove.

The cost of Phase Three of the infrastructure program has been estimated to be at 2.4 million dollars.

You can review the Journal of Commerce article here.

More items of note related to the city's waterline projects can be found on our Infrastructure archive page.