September 18, 2008

The feedermain under construction in Peel will deliver water from the Lorne Park Water Treatment Plant on Lake Ontario to the Herridge Reservoir and Pumping Station.

Rapid residential growth and demand for water drive Herridge feedermain project

DAN O’REILLY

correspondent

The rapid residential growth of Mississauga and Brampton is the driving force behind a major watermain investment by Peel Region.

Not only will the six-kilometre-long, three-phase $90-million Herridge Feedermain now under construction in south Mississauga require considerable tunnelling, the 2,100-mm diameter pipe is considerably larger than most watermains.

“That’s fairly large,” says Jeff Hennings, project manager with Peel Region’s environment, transportation and planning services section.

The feedermain is necessary to deliver water from the Lorne Park Water Treatment Plant on Lake Ontario to the Herridge Reservoir and Pumping Station. Its purpose is to increase water delivery to the west half of Mississauga and Brampton.

“Peel is evolving into a new phase as urban centre and the increased water supply is needed to allow communities to function,” says Hennings.

To meet the demands of future development in the region, a separate project to expand the treatment capacity of the plant from 347 to 500 million litres of water daily is getting underway, he points out.

UMA Engineering Ltd. is the consulting engineer for the feedermain project, which has been divided into three contracts.

Earlier this summer C & M McNally Engineering Corp. began the shaft construction to tunnel 2.7 kilometres of pipe from the plant to Lakeshore Road and then to Southdown Road. The pipe will be buried at a depth ranging from 60 to 90 feet, says Hennings.

From that point, another 1.8 kilometres of pipe will tunnelled under Southdown Road to the Queen Elizabeth Way by McNally Construction Ltd.

Shaft construction has also started. Both phases will be completed in early 2010, he says

The third contract will be tendered this fall and will be comprised of both open-cut and tunnel work. While the pipe has to be tunnelled under the QEW, open-cut construction will be used for the remainder of the route, which includes going through a school property and a utility corridor. This phase will be completed late in 2009.

While open construction is more economical, the project’s extensive tunnelling component is necessary to minimize traffic congestion and inconvenience to local residents.

The project was divided into three phases to make it more manageable and to obtain more competitive pricing from contractors, says Hennings.

“There are probably only one or two companies capable of taking on the entire project.”

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