On April 3rd, 2020, the City of Nanaimo experienced a significant historical water supply failure of a 750 mm dia. Hyprescon primary water supply main on Bowen Road, which resulted in the loss of approximately 22 million litres of water from the City’s water storage system, draining three reservoirs and leaving the top floors of the Greater Nanaimo Regional Hospital without water.
The City reviewed the Hyprescon failure, determined additional failures are imminent and the water supply system was at risk. The City elected to accelerate the replacement of the entire Hyprescon pipe section to mitigate this risk and immediately started preparing water supply routing plans and budgets. Through the routing study, the City further discovered additional risks of the water supply network and determined two supply mains are essential for redundancy and building a resilient water supply system.
In January 2021, the City started the process to secure an engineering consultant for the preliminary design and in April 2022, the City completed its Negotiated RFP and awarded the supply and installation contract. The new 7 km primary water supply main and 3.5 km secondary supply main improvements will significantly enhance the security of City’s supply to 60% of the City water service area to projected year 2100 water demands. The chosen alignment of the new primary and secondary main had many design challenges, including Archaeological studies and various Environmental and Geotechnical Investigations. These challenges also required a significant collaboration with many stakeholders and rightsholders, which included local First Nations, utility companies, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, Island Health, City Transportation and Parks, Recreational and Cultural staff and communication with local businesses and residents.
Topics to be discussed:
- Pipe diameter and Material Selection
- Connections, redundancy, and enhancements to the City water supply
- Alignment includes:
- Nanaimo Parkway
- Black Diamond residential area
- Northfield Road or Boxwood Road
- Boxwood Connector
- Beban Park
- Labieux Road
- Crossing of the Millstone River and Northfield Marsh
- Crossing of the Nanaimo Parkway