General Infrastructure Discussion

[jollyburger]

Photos from the new North Shore Wastewater plant U/C:

https://northshorewwtp.ca/photo-gallery/

[officedweller]

Cool, thanks!

[jollyburger]

Pretty big concrete pour last month for the new substation in North Vancouver:

Congrats to our team working on the Capilano Substation upgrade project in #YVR for hitting a major #milestone – the raft slab concrete pour was successfully executed last month! Party popper So far we have a total of 953m3 concrete poured!

https://twitter.com/GrahamBuilds/status/1443255731394916355

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Pretty big concrete pour last month for the new substation in North Vancouver:

The concrete pour gets all the attention, but the real hero is all the prep work for the forms and rebar...

[jollyburger]

Construction on the problem-plagued $1-billion project to build a new sewage treatment plant in North Vancouver has reportedly ground to a halt this week, as part of a contract dispute between Metro Vancouver and its primary contractor, Acciona.

Gears stopped turning on the massive infrastructure project this week after lead contractor Acciona Wastewater Solutions laid off a significant number of workers, leaving only a skeleton crew.

Sources told the North Shore News that Acciona has laid off more than 200 workers on the site in recent months, with the latest round of layoffs this week.

Work at the site was shut down on Wednesday, they said.

Metro Vancouver Commissioner and CAO Jerry Dobrovolny said in a statement the government had learned on Wednesday “without notice” that Acciona had “significantly reduced staff working on the project.”

Sources told the North Shore News that Acciona indicated this week it had not been paid amounts owed by Metro Vancouver under its contract.

In response, Dobrovolny said the contractor has “fallen behind meeting key milestones,” which are reviewed by an independent party.

“At this point, Acciona Wastewater Solutions LP has not earned additional payment. We have made an effort to work together, but we expect them to honour all of the contract obligations,” he said Thursday. “Given they are years behind schedule for this project, we expect them to be increasing their efforts on site not reducing them as we saw yesterday,” he said Thursday.

The contract to build the treatment plant was reopened in 2019 to give the company two and a half more years to complete the project, Dobrovolny stated. Under the current contract, Acciona is supposed to complete the project by the end of 2023.

Dobrovolny added Metro Vancouver is now “actively assessing our options for how to proceed.”

Nobody from Acciona was immediately available to comment on the situation.

https://www.nsnews.com/local-news/contra...-construction-in-north-vancouver-4474247

[jollyburger]

Didn't even know this was happening.



More details here:

http://www.metrovancouver.org/secondnarrows

A massive new piece of the Metro Vancouver’s water infrastructure network deep below Burrard Inlet is now complete.

Metro Vancouver issued a release Monday morning confirming a 1.1-kilometre tunnel linking North Vancouver to Burnaby is now finished.

“Completing this tunnel is an important milestone in this project and a remarkable testament to the innovation that is being used in Metro Vancouver to bring clean drinking water from the North Shore to the rest of the region,” said Sav Dhaliwal, chair of Metro Vancouver’s board of directors.

The Second Narrow Water Supply Tunnel will eventually replace two older water mains built the 1940s and 1970s. Both are nearing the end of their service lives, and if there were to be even a moderate earthquake, the damage would leave many residents of Burnaby, New Westminster and Surrey parched.

To dig the tunnel, contractors had to first drill out a 50-metre deep shaft straight down from Metro Vancouver’s works yard in Maplewood. On the other side of the Inlet, a 100-metre shaft was dug out from Montrose Park. Crews then burrowed a 1.1-kilometre tunnel between them.

It’s the first tunnel in Canada to be drilled with a Slurry boring machine. The machine itself, which was nicknamed Lynn Marie by its operators, is 135 metres long with a 6.69-metre cutter at the business end.

With the tunnel excavation complete, crews will start installing new water mains – one 1.5 metres in diameter and two 2.4 metres – along with new valve chambers.

“Metro Vancouver is constantly upgrading its water supply system to maintain the quality and reliability of the region’s excellent drinking water, and to make the system more resilient,” said Malcolm Brodie, chair of Metro Vancouver’s water committee.

Metro Vancouver started pre-construction the $445-million project in 2018. It is not expected to be fully online and coursing with potable H2O until 2025

https://www.nsnews.com/local-news/metro-...under-burrard-inlet-now-complete-4483562

[Tvisforme]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Hmmm... if they're done with the water tunnel, and all that drilling equipment is conveniently on or near the North Shore, might as well repurpose it for SkyTrain?

[jollyburger]

Interesting it's a slurry boring machine since the shaft is so shallow.

TBM Launch Completed September 2020: The 6.64-meter-diameter (21.78 ft) Herrenknecht mixshield (slurry) tunnel boring machine (“Lynn-Marie”) is the first mixshield TBM in Canada. The mixshield method is well suited for the expected pressures and geology. The machine is required to provide about 6.5 bar of support pressure but is designed for up to 8 bar. The bentonite slurry provides excavation support at a pressure controlled by mechanical means via a compressed air bubble. The slurry circuit is a closed system, and bentonite slurry is constantly cycled in and out of the excavation chamber while mining. Bentonite acts as a transport medium for excavation cuttings, which are piped out of the tunnel, separated at a treatment plant, and recycled back into the system.

The TBM was launched from a pressurized “launch lock” with no ground improvement outside the shaft. Therefore, the launch lock was required to seal against the full face support pressure (about 6.5 bar) prior to breaking through the shaft wall and to provide support for TBM thrust and rolling action.

https://mcmjac.com/news/second-narrows-water-supply-tunnel/

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Didn't even know this was happening.

Interesting that this is a tunnel into which they're going to install water mains, as opposed to a tunnel that is the water main. That should make it far easier to deal with problems and ensure a really long service life for the investment in boring. Is this a first for Vancouver, or have other service tunnels (water, sewer, etc.) been built this way?

[Jimbo604]

Another news story about Metro Vancouver north shore sewage treatment plant construction issues:

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/timeline-for-billi...ertain-after-project-abandoned-1.5610652

CTV News Vancouver - Published Oct. 4, 2021 1:52 p.m. PDT - Timeline for billion-dollar North Shore wastewater treatment plant uncertain after project 'abandoned'

"VANCOUVER - Construction on the new North Shore sewage treatment plant, already years behind its initial timeline for completion, has slowed so significantly that Metro Vancouver now considers the project “abandoned” by the contractor.

In a statement, Metro Vancouver told CTV News the project contractor, Acciona Wastewater Solutions LP, significantly reduced staff last Wednesday without notice. ..."

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

Interesting that this is a tunnel into which they're going to install water mains, as opposed to a tunnel that is the water main. That should make it far easier to deal with problems and ensure a really long service life for the investment in boring. Is this a first for Vancouver, or have other service tunnels (water, sewer, etc.) been built this way?

At $445 million (as opposed to $28 million for regular cut & cover), I can't imagine the GVRD has done this often. You'd need a large city with a large budget and high demand to make this kind of long-term investment worthwhile... which we haven't been until the last decade and a half.

[jollyburger]

There was the Port Mann project:

https://mcmjac.com/what-we-do/projects/port-mann-main-water-supply-tunnel/

They backfill with cellular concrete so I don't think they plan on accessing it.

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

At $445 million (as opposed to $28 million for regular cut & cover), I can't imagine the GVRD has done this often. You'd need a large city with a large budget and high demand to make this kind of long-term investment worthwhile... which we haven't been until the last decade and a half.

There's several of those projects that have happened around here or are going to happen soon. I was working on Second Narrows for the last year and a half.

Oddly enough, tunnelled mains have been a thing around here for a long time. There's a crossing beneath the first narrows that was built in the 1930s. Tunnels are much more durable than most surface infrastructure. That one was done with a caisson. Vancouver was hardly a large city then.

Seymour-Capilano was the first recent water tunnel, which I worked on for 3 years. It finished in 2015.

Port Mann Water Supply Tunnel finished up a few years ago, which a few of my co-workers were on. I believe that one was done around 2018.

Stanley Park is going to get a water tunnel beneath it in the next couple of years to replace the old mains theres. It's going from Lost Lagoon to the existing tunnel shaft

Annacis Water Supply Tunnel is going to happen in the next few years between Surrey and New West.

Coquitlam is also to get some similar infrastructure in the near future. There's also some sewage outfall tunnels that are getting built soon.

Seymour-Capilano used the tunnel as a pipe for part of its length, which is pretty uncommon. I believe the rest of the drinking water tunnels all have steel mains within a pipe.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon

There's several of those projects that have happened around here or are going to happen soon. I was working on Second Narrows for the last year and a half.

Oddly enough, tunnelled mains have been a thing around here for a long time. There's a crossing beneath the first narrows that was built in the 1930s. Tunnels are much more durable than most surface infrastructure. That one was done with a caisson. Vancouver was hardly a large city then.

Seymour-Capilano was the first recent water tunnel, which I worked on for 3 years. It finished in 2015.

Port Mann Water Supply Tunnel finished up a few years ago, which a few of my co-workers were on. I believe that one was done around 2018.

Stanley Park is going to get a water tunnel beneath it in the next couple of years to replace the old mains theres. It's going from Lost Lagoon to the existing tunnel shaft

Annacis Water Supply Tunnel is going to happen in the next few years between Surrey and New West.

Coquitlam is also to get some similar infrastructure in the near future. There's also some sewage outfall tunnels that are getting built soon.

Seymour-Capilano used the tunnel as a pipe for part of its length, which is pretty uncommon. I believe the rest of the drinking water tunnels all have steel mains within a pipe.

Do they discard the TBM like they do with other projects or can they reuse it?

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon

There's several of those projects that have happened around here or are going to happen soon. I was working on Second Narrows for the last year and a half.

Oddly enough, tunnelled mains have been a thing around here for a long time. There's a crossing beneath the first narrows that was built in the 1930s. Tunnels are much more durable than most surface infrastructure. That one was done with a caisson. Vancouver was hardly a large city then.

Seymour-Capilano was the first recent water tunnel, which I worked on for 3 years. It finished in 2015.

Port Mann Water Supply Tunnel finished up a few years ago, which a few of my co-workers were on. I believe that one was done around 2018.

Stanley Park is going to get a water tunnel beneath it in the next couple of years to replace the old mains theres. It's going from Lost Lagoon to the existing tunnel shaft

Annacis Water Supply Tunnel is going to happen in the next few years between Surrey and New West.

Coquitlam is also to get some similar infrastructure in the near future. There's also some sewage outfall tunnels that are getting built soon.

Seymour-Capilano used the tunnel as a pipe for part of its length, which is pretty uncommon. I believe the rest of the drinking water tunnels all have steel mains within a pipe.

MetroVancouver really has a lot of tunneling history and future to them. the Highbury Tunnel is another example from the 1960s. they work, and they last, and it is one of the few ways to deal with our geography when we want something to be future proof for 100+ years.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Seeing as we usually spend $3 billion and twenty years fighting over a tunnel, this is a pleasant surprise.

[Sheba]

This seemed like the closest thread to post this: B.C. government announces new plant in Merritt to remove carbon dioxide from the air

The B.C. government has announced it will provide $2 million to help design a new plant in Merritt that will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make low carbon synthetic fuel.

Energy Minister Bruce Ralston and Chief Harvey McLeod of the Upper Nicola First Nations made the announcement Wednesday at a news conference in Squamish.

Ralston said the plant, which is to be operated by Squamish-based Huron Clean Energy, will be a world leader in carbon capture to create low carbon hydrogen synthetic fuels, which can be used for the marine, aviation and other transportation industries. The plant will be powered by hydroelectricity.

He said once built, the Huron Clean Energy’s Merritt Electro Fuels Project will create more than 100 million litres of synthetic fuel a year and capture more than 250,000 tonnes of carbon annually. It will also create 4,000 construction jobs and 340 long-term jobs operating the plant.

...

Presumably we'll need more than one of these plants. Any idea on how much space they need - is there anywhere closer (maybe the Fraser Valley?) we could have another?

[WarrenC12]

Interesting. $2M seems pretty cheap for this investment, assuming the rest can be done by the private sector. I wonder what this synthetic fuel will cost and what engines are required to run it. If it could be added to current aviation and/or marine fuel, that would be amazing.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Forgive my skepticism, but we can't even get plastic recycling to turn a profit - and that's just converting solids to other solids.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Forgive my skepticism, but we can't even get plastic recycling to turn a profit - and that's just converting solids to other solids.

That's true because plastic is cheap as shit.

Fuel is pretty expensive, the carbon tax will only add to it more and more.

I'm ok with this because it's happening with minimal government subsidy. If it doesn't work, it's too bad, but we didn't throw a pile of money into it.