Posted Nov 26, 2008, 4:17 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Uptown, Saint John
Posts: 1,686
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Quote:
Harbour cleanup City to issue biggest tender call in its history this week
Reid Southwick
Telegraph-Journal
SAINT JOHN - The city will issue the largest public tender in its history this week when it asks for proposals to build a wastewater treatment plant that will serve customers in the eastern and southern regions.
The treatment plant, estimated to cost $47 million, is the most important harbour cleanup project in the city, municipal operations commissioner Paul Groody said Tuesday.
"It will be, if not the most advanced, one of the most advanced facilities in Atlantic Canada," Groody said.
"It will have not only the treatment processes in place, but it will also have labs for chemical technologists and everything that goes with a modern wastewater treatment plant."
The city expects to receive bids from major construction firms across the country before the bidding process closes in January. City staff will likely have a recommendation before common council by the end of that month, with plans to begin construction by next spring.
Construction is expected to last 20 months, paving the way for a completion date of late 2010.
The treatment plant, slated for construction at Hazen Creek on Red Head Road, will be the largest of its kind in the city. It will process 35,000 cubic metres of waste per day, which is three-and-half times the capacity of the upgraded Millidgeville treatment plant.
"Once this gets completed, we're really on the downward slope for harbour cleanup," Groody said.
The treatment plant is part of a $79.8-million harbour cleanup project, funded by all three levels of government.
Residents are routinely reminded of the city's long-standing practice of not treating raw sewage when they drive by Marsh Creek and inhale the foul odour.
Groody said the city is already working on smaller projects that will capture a lot of the waste that flows into the marsh, but the new treatment plant will play a role as well.
Currently, the city is treating just 43 per cent of all wastewater in the southern and eastern regions of the municipality. This compares to the 85 per cent of sewage the city is treating in the northern area and the 65 per cent treated on the west side.
"We can't begin to treat any more waste out east until we have this facility, and that is why it's so important," Groody said.
"The new facility will replace the Hazen Creek and Marsh Creek treatment plants and add significant capacity for the eastern and southern areas of the city."
Groody said the new plant will come after the tireless work of ACAP Saint John, an environmental group, and city employees, including municipal engineering manager Brian Keenan.
"It's really gratifying to see it come together and people like Tim Vicars and ACAP Saint John, and everyone in the community make this happen. It's a positive event for everybody," Groody said.
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The engineering diagrams are all signed off on, and issuing the call to tender is exciting news for those of us who helped work for so many years to make this happen. I can't wait for 2010-2011 when the plant goes online and one of Saint John's biggest problems is finally taken care of for good.
Building this massive treatment plant could also be added to the SJ under-construction thread whenever you have the chance 
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