wastewater treatment plant - Associated Engineering Caring for our Shared Future Mon, 31 Mar 2025 18:42:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8 /wp-content/uploads/2023/04/cropped-fav-32x32.png wastewater treatment plant - Associated Engineering 32 32 Retrofit of Acton Wastewater Treatment Plant creates sustainable office space that fosters equity, diversity, and inclusion /articles/retrofit-of-acton-wastewater-treatment-plant-creates-sustainable-office-space-that-fosters-equity-diversity-and-inclusion/ Mon, 31 Mar 2025 17:54:19 +0000 /?p=11551 Halton Region wished to retrofit its decommissioned filter area at the Acton Wastewater Treatment Plant in Halton Hills, ON to create a new, sustainable administrative building designed with equity, diversity, and inclusion in mind. A growing municipality of about 600,000 in southern Ontario, the Region owns and operates seven wastewater treatment plants, as part of […]

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Halton Region wished to retrofit its decommissioned filter area at the Acton Wastewater Treatment Plant in Halton Hills, ON to create a new, sustainable administrative building designed with equity, diversity, and inclusion in mind. A growing municipality of about 600,000 in southern Ontario, the Region owns and operates seven wastewater treatment plants, as part of its responsibility to provide wastewater management services for the municipality.

Following the construction of a new stand-alone filter building at the Acton Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Region wished to retrofit the decommissioned filter building, repurposing the filter wing and combining it with the office wing to create a new administrative building. This adaptive reuse approach reduces the embodied carbon footprint by minimizing the need for new construction.

The Region engaged Associated Engineering to provide engineering services for the filter building retrofit and various plant upgrades. As the prime consultant, Associated’s scope of work includes critical elements such as the demolition of the existing process infrastructure, building mechanical services for the retrofitted space, and structural retrofit and backfilling of the existing filter tank, and repurposing of the space as offices.

In addition to the retrofit and facility upgrade, the Region wanted to implement energy-saving options to reduce the facility’s environmental impact. Funding is available for green initiatives to support this goal. Project Manager, Roy Gong, shares, “We proposed and reviewed several options with the Region, and completed a feasibility study to document the viability of potential approaches.”

Some of the green initiatives explored to reduce environmental impact included alternative heat sources, such as a hydronic heating system and geothermal heating. The team also investigated the benefits of upgrading the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system.

Mechanical Designer, Yang An, says, “The existing HVAC system for the office area was old and outdated. We determined the most practical way to serve the retrofitted administrative building is to install roof-top units for conditioning the space. We proposed a new HVAC roof-top unit with better energy-efficiency. Variable air volume boxes are being installed for different rooms to tune the air flow and lower energy consumption when the space is unoccupied.”

During preliminary design, the Region requested that we incorporate Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) concepts into our design, aligning with their new EDI policy. The EDI design concepts significantly altered the original design, in particular the changing rooms, locker rooms, and showers. Roy tells us, “Working closely with our architectural subconsultant, we developed solutions to minimize the impact on the overall design and re-work efforts. The Region acknowledged the scope of these changes and accommodated the additional work required.”

During detailed design, the Region asked our team to explore solar thermal wall installation, a technology used to capture and use solar energy to preheat the ventilation air for buildings. Yang explains, “Also known as a transpired solar collector, a solar thermal wall is a passive solar heating system designed to reduce the energy required for heating, especially in industrial and commercial buildings.” Our team’s investigations with a local supplier determined the feasibility of this option.

Currently, the team is working towards tender phase. The project team’s flexibility and agility in responding to the Region’s requested changes, combined with strong communication and a collaborative relationship between the Region, our subconsultants (Brown+Storey Architects and Eramosa Engineering), and our in-house team have created a successful teaming environment and the design of a sustainable workspace that fosters equity, diversity, and inclusion.

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Confederation Way Sanitary Sewer facilitates growth and alleviates sewer flooding in Fort McMurray /articles/confederation-way-sanitary-sewer-facilitates-growth-and-alleviates-sewer-flooding-in-fort-mcmurray/ Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:00:00 +0000 /?p=11174 Over the past two decades, the Timberlea Neighbourhood in Fort McMurray has been subject to flooding during heavy rainfall events. These storm events overwhelm the sanitary sewer system, causing the sewer to surcharge and backup, resulting in basement flooding. In 2014, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo developed a Wastewater Master Plan (WWMP) for Fort […]

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Over the past two decades, the Timberlea Neighbourhood in Fort McMurray has been subject to flooding during heavy rainfall events. These storm events overwhelm the sanitary sewer system, causing the sewer to surcharge and backup, resulting in basement flooding. In 2014, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo developed a Wastewater Master Plan (WWMP) for Fort McMurray with a focus to prioritize resolving this problem. The Municipality defined the Confederation Way Sanitary Sewer Upgrade capital project to address areas prone to sewer surcharging.

Project Manager, Owen Mierke, tells us, “The scope of the project sought to address sewer back-up and failing infrastructure, and accommodate future growth. The first phase of the project addressed localized basement flooding, while the second phase delivered larger system upgrades.”

Phase 1 traverses through the existing Timberlea neighbourhoods, along the top of the bank, and terminates at the existing trunk sewer in the north boulevard of Confederation Way.

Phase 2 extends from Phase 1 and includes replacing an existing 450 millimetre gravity trunk sewer with a 750 millimetre gravity trunk sewer, a siphon inlet control structure, upgrading an existing double-barrel (500 millimetre and 300 millimetre) siphon with a triple-barrel (650 millimetre, 650 millimetre, and 550 millimetre) siphon, metering chambers, a flow control structure, and a rock trap structure at the wastewater treatment plant.

Using an integrated design approach, the project team collaborated with the Municipality, geotechnical specialists, trenchless contractors, residents, regulatory agencies, general contractors, and multiple stakeholders to develop an innovative design that addressed the complex geotechnical issues and built-up environment. Associated Engineering implemented a tailored project management plan to help address the project’s many challenges.

The 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire had a large impact on this project, affecting the scheduled completion and transportation and construction logistics. The Municipality had to minimize traffic disruptions on the wildfire rebuild haul routes for Stone Creek, within the residential neighbourhood of Timberlea, in which wildfire destroyed 379 structures, and was located beside the project site. Owen tells us, “Offloading of materials and equipment was restricted to single-lane temporary closures, as total closure would have impacted the contractor’s completion of wildfire restoration works.”

Extending from the Timberlea Neighbourhood to the wastewater treatment plant two kilometres away, with 100+ metre elevation difference, the Confederation Way Sanitary Sewer upgrade traversed unstable slopes; crossed several pipelines, shallow utilities, and two interchanges; and passed through the built-up residential neighbourhood and a busy wastewater treatment plant site that never shuts down. Using trenchless technologies, including horizontal directional drilling (HDD), microtunnelling, and pilot-tube auger boring, minimized impact on the environment, residential neighbourhoods, and the public.

Substantially completed in 2023, the $40 million Confederation Way Sanitary Sewer Bypass (Phase 2) project provides the Timberlea Neighbourhood with additional sewer capacity, supporting growth and reducing risks associated with basement flooding due to sewer back-up. In addition to providing a resilient sanitary sewer trunk, the Municipality received the added benefit of modern flow control and metering, regulating flows to the treatment plant and easing plant operations. The project demonstrates an integrated design and construction approach and proactive and open stakeholder engagement to implement infrastructure that benefits the community.

The project received an Award of Merit at the Consulting Engineers of Alberta Showcase Awards in 2024.

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New Wetaskiwin Wastewater Treatment Plant meets higher effluent requirements /articles/new-wetaskiwin-wastewater-treatment-plant-meets-higher-effluent-requirements/ Thu, 05 Oct 2023 20:45:40 +0000 https://ae.opacity.design/?p=8306 Located 70 kilometres south of Edmonton, the City of Wetaskiwin is home to approximately 13,000 people. The City operates a wastewater treatment lagoon originally constructed in 1979, which discharges treated effluent to the Battle River. In 2019, Alberta Environment and Parks, which regulates wastewater treatment facilities in Alberta, issued an approval renewal for the facility […]

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Located 70 kilometres south of Edmonton, the City of Wetaskiwin is home to approximately 13,000 people. The City operates a wastewater treatment lagoon originally constructed in 1979, which discharges treated effluent to the Battle River. In 2019, Alberta Environment and Parks, which regulates wastewater treatment facilities in Alberta, issued an approval renewal for the facility that imposed more stringent effluent limits by the end of 2023. As a result, the City retained Associated Engineering to provide design and construction engineering services to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant to meet these new effluent limits. 

During the preliminary phase of the project, Associated’s project team completed a Concept Report including a flow and load design basis, a review of mechanical treatment technology options, and short-listed upgrade options examined through a multi-criteria assessment and risk evaluation. Subsequently, the team conducted a feasibility review, analyzing two treatment technologies: Submerged Attached-Growth Reactor technology and Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor technology.

Based on this review, the team prepared a Design Basis Memorandum of the proposed treatment system upgrade that included headworks, lagoons, post-lagoon Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor with nitrification and denitrification, tertiary filtration, and disinfection. 

Project Manager, Daniel du Toit, tells us, “The estimated capital cost for the upgrades required to meet the new regulatory limits was significant and required external funding. Partial grant funding was received from the Alberta Government.” 

The City explored alternative delivery methods, including public-private partnerships. In 2020, based on an evaluated expression of interest process, the City selected Graham Capital as a business partner to construct, finance, operate, and maintain the new wastewater treatment plant. Peace Hills Utilities Inc., a municipal-controlled utility corporation, was created, allowing the City to reduce debt and finance the project with the lowest possible rate impact on citizens. Graham Infrastructure was contracted under Peace Hills Utilities Inc. to perform the construction. Peace Hills Utilities Inc. contracted Aquatera Utilities to provide operational and maintenance services for the water and wastewater treatment infrastructure.

Following the City’s acceptance of the Design Basis Memorandum, our team began detailed design in June 2022. A collaborative work environment between Graham Infrastructure and Associated resulted in cost savings and helped expedite construction. Deputy Project Manager, Abu Waraich, says, “We developed the detailed design in collaboration with Graham. They provided input on constructability, material and equipment lead times, and schedule. Based on this input, we advanced certain components of the design to complete construction by the original December 31, 2023 deadline.”

In addition, Value Engineering Sessions led to net savings of $3.5 million. The team also conducted Building Energy Modelling to reduce the cost of building construction. They completed a 3D Scan of all existing infrastructure to facilitate integration of new infrastructure with the existing works.  

Detailed design of the wastewater treatment upgrades was completed in September 2022. Construction is now scheduled for completion in mid-2024, due to equipment supply delays. 

The Associated team includes Daniel du Toit, Abu Waraich, Jose Bicudo, Rony Das, Zhi Gu, Kevin Darrah, James Sharpe, Keith Ogletree, Hu Kou, Dusanka Stevanovic, Caitlin Luo, Dorte Koster, and Brett Wynnyk.

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