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Back to SearchSome of Ontario’s most innovative water and wastewater projects can be found in the rapidly growing York Region. These projects will help serve a population that is expected to increase from 1.1 million people to 1.8 million by 2041.
York Region, which supplies water and wastewater services to nine municipalities, and GHD, a leading global engineering, environmental and construction services company, recently earned prestigious industry awards for these upgrades.
The Glenway Reservoir and the Aurora Sewage Pump Station have won two Project of the Year Awards 2016 from the Ontario Public Works Association (OPWA), while East Vaughan Pumping Station came second in the Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), York Chapter Project of the Year Awards.
Throstur Gretarsson, Senior Project Manager - Water & Wastewater, says, “We are thrilled to achieve this level of recognition from our peers in the engineering and public works professions. These projects highlight our purpose of creating lasting community benefit together with our clients.”
Glenway Reservoir Expansion
The Glenway Reservoir is one of 37 storage facilities operated by the Region as part of the York Water Supply System. To meet projected growth and water demands within the Town of Newmarket, GHD undertook the Class Environmental Assessment, detailed design, contract administration, and site inspection to expand the reservoir capacity from 4.7 ML to a total of 10.5 ML.
This involved the design and construction of an AWWA D110, Type 3, pre-cast, pre-stressed concrete water tank that is the first of its kind in Ontario, designed to withstand the effects of a cold climate where concrete structures are typically susceptible to freeze-thaw cycles.
The project also incorporates a chloramine reformation and booster station to minimize free ammonia in the storage tanks and the distribution system, thereby preventing nitrification.
The new water tank and booster station have been in operation since April 2015, and have been so successful that this pilot system has resulted in the implementation of a region-wide network of chloramine reformation and booster stations.
The key environmental issues addressed during this project included erosion and sediment control during construction, dust control, protection of vegetation, and stormwater runoff control after construction.
Aurora Sewage Pump Station
The Aurora Sewage Pump Station is a major hub in the region's waste collection system with a firm capacity of 1,820 L/s.
GHD provided the design, tender, construction, commissioning, and warranty services for the replacement of six 400 L/s sewage pumps and associated works.
The team faced unique challenges in coordinating and sequencing the work with multiple shutdowns and commissioning stages because the station needed to maintain full operation during the construction of the new pump systems and the replacement of the main transformers.
East Vaughan Pumping Station
Rated at 84 MLD, the CAD27.4 million East Vaughan Pumping Station is one of the largest facilities of this type in the York Region. GHD undertook detailed design, contract administration, site inspection, commissioning, and warranty services for the construction of this new 1900 m2 facility in a very constrained 40 m x 140 m area.
The facility design includes:
- Pump stations serving two separate pressure zones from a single building
- Advanced booster chloramination to optimize chlorine residual, and reduce chemical use and disinfection by-product formation, while improving taste and odor
- Integration with control systems of three distant pumping stations as part of York Region’s overall distribution system and provision of unique diaphragm-type passive surge control tanks
- Innovative shoring, base slab design and sequencing to reduce required dewatering from 12 MLD to 4 MLD
- Careful sequencing to jack and bore a 42-inch (1050 millimetre) watermain outlet under an existing reservoir while minimizing shutdown time
- Context-sensitive architectural design to compliment the adjacent residential areas and Buddhist temple