Pipeline takes over James Bay street
Residents adjust as wastewater conduit assembled on Niagara Street prior to installation
For six weeks, residents of Niagara Street in the James Bay neighbourhood can only reach their homes by foot because a massive sewage pipe is being assembled on their street.
A section of Niagara between St. Lawrence and South Turner Streets, has been closed to vehicular traffic because the roadway is being used as a staging area for one part of the region’s $765-million wastewater treatment project.
Crews are working 12-hour days welding and laying out a steel pipe about a metre in diameter that, when completed, will run between Ogden Point and McLoughlin Point.
Sewage now converges at Clover Point and shoots out into the sea. The wastewater project will re-direct sewage from Clover Point via a new pipe that will run along the Dallas Road waterfront to Ogden Point and then go under Victoria Harbour, connecting to a treatment plant being built at McLoughlin Point.
“Sure it’s inconvenient, but I don’t mind, as I feel it is for the common good,” said Julian Woo as he prepared to take his two-yearold daughter out on his bicycle. “I don’t personally have a problem getting around, but I do feel bad for the disabled in the neighbourhood.”
The 12-metre-long pipe sections are joined in a white tent in front of White Eagle Polish Hall, a block away from Ogden Point, the entry point of the pipe as it makes its way under Victoria Harbour to the wastewater treatment plant being built at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt.
As each section is attached, a crew drags, using heavy machinery, the increasingly longer pipe towards South Turner Street.
“It’s actually quieter overall since the project started, said Julian Osika. “There is no vehicular traffic and, surprisingly, no extra pedestrian traffic.”
The project is a disruption, but “it can’t be helped,” he said.
He rates the city’s communications around the project to the community as very informative.
Crews have spent the past few months drilling an undersea passage for the 940-metre-long pipe, which will be pulled and pushed through the tunnel.
As the pipe gets longer by the day, area residents have already found ways to mitigate its impact.
Jason Tremblay, who lives on Boyd Street and who regularly crosses Niagara Street for his daily walk, said the project just means a few extra steps for him.
“I’m more concerned with the more elderly, with their walkers and such, who have to walk around the road closure to get to the grocery store,” he said.
There is one crosswalk with a person directing traffic — about halfway up the affected section of Niagara Street — and he said there should be a few more.
The city has relaxed residential-only parking restrictions so that area residents can park their vehicles off-site while the project proceeds.
Garbage and blue box pickup will continue for the duration of the project, but buses are being re-routed. Access to emergency services and pedestrian access will be available at all times.
Workers to be on the site 12 hours a day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays for five weeks, and accelerate to working around the clock in the last week.
The Wastewater Treatment Project will provide tertiary treatment for wastewater, which removes phosphorus and nitrogen and practically all suspended and organic matter.
It will serve the municipalities of Victoria, Esquimalt, Saanich, Oak Bay, View Royal, Langford and Colwood, and the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations.
It consist of three components:
• A 108-megalitre per day tertiary treatment plant at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt
• A conveyance system for piping the wastewater to the plant and the residual solids to the Residuals Treatment Facility
• A Residuals Treatment Facility at Hartland to produce Class A biosolids.
For more information, go to wastewaterproject.ca.
The wastewater pipe being assembled on Victoria’s Niagara Street is destined for undersea duty, entering a tunnel at Ogden Point, going under Victoria Harbour, and resurfacing on the other side at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt, where a sewage treatment plant is being built.
It is the final leg of a longer pipe that will run westward from Clover Point pump station to the harbour.
The pipe assembly on Niagara Street started March 5 and is expected to span six weeks.
Sewage from the region now flows to either the Clover Point pump station or the Macaulay Point pump station, depending on geography. The wastewater is screened and piped into the sea.
With the $765-million Wastewater Treatment Project, instead of going into the sea, sewage coming to Clover Point will be redirected into the new pipe for cleaning at McLoughlin Point.
Construction of the new wastewater treatment system began in June 2017 and is scheduled to be completed in 2020. • Pipe specifications:
The undersea portion of the pipe, manufactured in South Korea, is 1.1 metres in diameter and 940 metres long, made up of 78 sections, each 12.2 metres in length. It is made of steel with a polyurethane liner. It has a combined weight of 615,300 kilograms. • How flexible is it?
The pipe is designed to withstand a bend of at least 18 degrees.
The pipe enters the ground at Ogden Point at a 10-degree angle. The angle gradually reduces as the pipe approaches the halfway point, about 450 metres off the shore.
After the halfway point, the pipe gradually curves upward until it reaches the exit angle of 18 degrees. • Is the tunnel already drilled?
Horizontal directional drilling started in June 2017 from Ogden Point and is expected to be finished next month. • How deep is the tunnel?
The deepest part of the tunnel is approximately 80 metres below sea level — 15 metres of ocean, 15 metres of sediment and 50 metres of bedrock. • What keeps the tunnel stable?
The majority of the tunnel is in bedrock, which has significant strength, so a casing is not required.
There is an oversize steel casing (162-centimetres in diameter) installed at the Ogden Point end which is seated in bedrock. The casing ensures no soil can collapse into the hole. • What is the purpose of this pipe?
The cross-harbour undersea pipe transports wastewater — up to 108megalitres a day — from Clover Point pump station to the sewage treatment plant that will built at McLoughlin Point. • How was the route of the pipe decided upon?
The alignment was designed by the project team in order to meet a number of technical requirements for a pipe of that diameter and length.