June 24, 2011

DAN O’REILLY

Demolition of the old chlorine treatment plant by Quantum Murray Demolition began in April.

FEATURE | Sewer and Watermain/Water & Wastewater

How the Lakeview Water Treatment Plant in Mississauga, Ontario will save space

DAN O’REILLY

correspondent

A three-year $106-million project that will replace an aging chlorine-treatment building with a new advanced 41,519-square-foot (12,655-square-metre) 400 mega litres-per-day plant is now in full progress at the Lakeview Water Treatment plant in Mississauga, Ontario.

In April, Quantum Murray Demolition began the demolition of the old facility, which consisted of 10 filters and a low-lift pumping station, to make way for the new 12-membrane facility which will use a combination of ozonation, ultrafiltration (UF) and ultraviolet (UV) technology.

“All three systems have been used for some time, but what is fairly new is the combination of all three,” says Peel water division manager Andrew Farr.

Kenaidan Contracting is the general contractor and CH2M Hill is the consultant on the project which is the largest component of the plant’s overall $209 million Phase Two expansion. Other work in this phase has included the construction of an administration building and a recently completed low-lift pumping station.

“We don’t have a lot of room here,” says Farr, in an explanation of why the combined ozone, UF, and UV technology is being used.

Not only does it provide faster treatment time, the combined system also requires less physical space. The footprint of the new plant will be only about 25 per cent of the space a conventional treatment plant would require. That will allow the region to preserve a considerable amount of adjacent greenspace and a baseball diamond.

The decommissioning and demolition of the old structure, parts of which dated back to the 1950s, won’t cause any disruption of loss of service, says Farr.

“We have capacity.”

The work currently underway is the culmination of a long-planned redevelopment designed to meet the water needs of Peel’s growing population. A Phase 1 expansion started in 2003 and, as part of that phase, an advanced treatment building was constructed in 2007.

Sandwiched between that one and the one to be built is a conventional chlorine treatment plant erected sometime in the 1960s. “But it is still a good functioning plant,” says Farr.

That middle section, however, will eventually be retrofitted and, by 2020, Lakeview will be a 100 per cent ozone, UF and UV treatment facility.

As for the current project, it is progressing fairly smoothly, says Kenaidan senior site superintendent Dave Ramberg.

With the exception of the foundation, all of the old treatment building has been knocked down by Quantum Murray crews.

Still, considerable dewatering will be required when excavation starts because the slab level is actually below the water level of Lake Ontario, he says.

With the building expected to consume 32,000 cubic metres of concrete, one of the biggest pieces of the project will be the formwork. It will be done by Kenaidan’s own crews in partnership with MJR Contractors. To match other buildings on the grounds, the cladding will be precast concrete.

Right now there are only about 30 workers on site, but Ramberg expects that will climb to approximately 120 when the project hits its peak in summer 2012. There will also be tower cranes — one on the north side of the site and a second one at the south side.

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