A Metro Vancouver engineer was in the hot seat in council chambers Monday night as frustration mounts about the length of time it’s taking to complete sewer repairs on Columbia Street.
Local businesses, area residents and city officials are concerned about construction-related impacts, such as reduced parking and stacks of massive pipes on the roadway. Metro Vancouver is aiming to complete the work by the May long weekend.
What is the New Westminster interceptor?
The New Westminster Interceptor is a large pipe that carries sewage from Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, most of Burnaby and parts of New Westminster to the Annacis Island wastewater treatment plant in Delta.
Metro Vancouver officials appeared before city council in December 2020 to outline plans to rehabilitate about 1.6 kilometres of a major sewer line on Columbia Street between McBride Boulevard and Front/Columbia streets, at which time city council – concerned about impacts on a downtown business district already suffering from the impacts of COVID-19 – directed engineering staff to work with Metro Vancouver on different timeline options for the project.
In March 2021, council reluctantly agreed to allow Metro Vancouver to proceed with the project after being told delaying the repairs could have disastrous consequences, such as a discharge of raw sewage or a sink hole on Columbia Street.
What’s the latest?
On March 7, council granted an exemption to the construction noise bylaw that will allow work to be done for 12 nights between 8 a.m. and 7 a.m., between Friday, March 11 and Thursday, April 14. This will allow sliplining – a major component of the project – to be done. (Sliplining involves putting a new pipe inside an old pipe.)
Phase 1 of the project has been delayed by a gamut of challenges, including weather, supply chain issues, COVID-19 impacts and underground obstructions.
Colin Meldrum, director of engineering, design and construction in the liquid waste services department at Metro Vancouver, said the contractor began installing the pipe into the existing pipe about three weeks ago, but it “ran into a snag” in the form of an underground obstruction. In response, he said the contractor has changed the way it will proceed with the sliplining process.
The new plan means that most of the pipes stored on the road in the 700 block of Columbia Street, directly across from Anvil Centre, will be moved further up Columbia Street, past Blackwood Street.
“There should still be eight or 10, maybe 12 sticks of pipe left to complete the part downstream of Eighth, but the majority of that pipe is being moved away from the downtown core and up towards the Transit Police works yard,” Meldrum told council Monday. “That will start tomorrow.”
According to Meldrum, the contractor has completed 30% of the sliplining work that’s to be done in Phase 1 of the sewer project.
“The timeline for everything hinges on the sliplining of this work. This is the core of the entire project,” he said. “We need all of the new pipe in first.”
Once the pipe is installed, Meldrum said work needs to be done to the city connections to the pipes, to replace some manholes and to fill the space between the old and new pipes.
“We expect that to be done by the May 24 weekend – and that’s what we are aiming for,” he said. “We are trying our hardest to get it done by the May 24 weekend. We understand that is the start of patio season and potentially summer events.”
How does the Downtown New West BIA feel about the project?
A “nightmare” – that’s how BIA president Karima Jivraj describes the project that she says has been plagued with delays and poor communication since it started.
“Since I can’t use the words I want to, in polite terms, this whole thing is a huge disaster,” she said.
Jivraj cited concerns such as road closures with little or no notice, excessive noise, smells, a lack of parking and a “terrible” pedestrian experience.
“No matter what our merchants have tried to do, they still lose business every single day that this continues,” she said. “There seems to be absolutely no concern that this is impacting the livelihoods of small businesses.”
Jivraj said delays and poor communication have eroded the BIA’s trust in Metro Vancouver.
“The bottom-line for downtown businesses is they need respect, they need better communication, they need more support. No more delays, no more miscommunication, no more collectively shrugging our shoulders about how there is nothing anyone can do about it,” she said. “This project needs to be completed by the end of April. The businesses need to be able to have the spring and summer to recoup their losses.”
What does Metro Vancouver have to say to businesses?
On behalf of Metro Vancouver, Meldrum apologized for the delays in the project and thanked the community for its continued patience and understanding.
“I know your trust in us and our timelines is low. We have had more successful projects in the Lower Mainland. This has been a challenge,” he said. “My commitment is that we are going to continue to try and do our best to move this forward. I apologize that we have taken as long as we have and has been as impactful as it has. That was not our intent.”
To expedite the work, Metro Vancouver, the contractor and the project consultant are all putting extra resources into the project.
“We acknowledge we have had a significant impact,” Meldrum said. “This is a critical piece of infrastructure that needs to be repaired. And we are attempting to get the downtown section of the work completed by the May 24 weekend.”
Council concerned about delays
At Monday’s meeting, council members pressed Metro Vancouver to get the project done by May 24 – or earlier, to better communicate with businesses about the status of the project. Some expressed second thoughts about approving the project in the first place and others questioned how it would rebuild trust with the community.
“At what point does Metro Vancouver say, we have to find a way to be fair to these people?” said Coun. Jaimie McEvoy. “It’s really the local businesses and people’s jobs and livelihoods that have been paying for the delays and the problems of this project.”
Meldrum said Metro Vancouver recognizes the project has impacted businesses and it’s doing its best to minimize those impacts.
“Having said that, the use of a public roadway is partially meant for the use for public infrastructure. The other alternatives (to sliplining) for doing this project would have been more impactful,” he said. “There is limitations to what a local government can do and what a regional government can do around the payment to local business. I would leave that to people who know more about the Local Government Act than I do to comment on that, but there is limitations with what we can do.”
If the city or the BIA wants to hold a festival or an event when the work is done, he said Metro Vancouver is “more than happy” to partner with them in making that happen.
“We are working with city staff to leave Columbia Street in a better condition than it was when we started. The catch phrase these days is ‘build back better’ and we want to do that,” he added. “We are committed to making the city whole for any of the expenses it has through the payment of fees and other issues. There is a number of things that we are doing. Again, the main thing we are doing is trying to get this done as quick as possible.”
Can Metro Vancouver guarantee the current work will be finished by May 24?
Meldrum said Metro Vancouver is looking at mitigation measures it could implement if it runs into a challenge and the May 24 timeline is at risk.
“We think our risk profile is significantly reduced than it was last year,” he said. “Things can always go wrong. I can’t give you a guarantee, but I can tell you we are comfortable that the May 24 deadline is achievable and we are trying to develop mitigation measures in case something happens, so we can achieve that.”
Coun. Mary Trentadue said she is hopeful that Metro Vancouver has done enough work with the contractor to complete the work by May, but wanted assurances that a backup plan is in place if that deadline isn’t met. She said the city is prepared to do “whatever it takes” to get this project done quickly.
“I think that the trust is completely broken. People are broken because they have been suffering for a long time, and this has just kind of been the last straw,” she said.
Mayor Jonathan Cote said the city knew this was going to be a difficult project, but the impact of the project has been worse than expected. He said Metro Vancouver has been guilty of over-promising and under-delivering on this project.
“This type of infrastructure is obviously critically important, not only to our city but to the region, and needs to get done. But I think we need to have some acknowledgement that this project has not gone well and has created harm and difficulties in a really important business district in the City of New Westminster,” he said. “l I think a lot of the discussion we have had today is about improving that communication and that trust, not only from the city but with some important community stakeholders and the downtown BIA. I will really implore Metro Vancouver to work incredibly hard on that work.”
Cote said the city wants the project completed as quickly as possible – but he doesn’t want that to result in unrealistic promises being made.
“If May 24 is not a realistic deadline, please don’t put that date out there because it is only going to lead to more issues if that’s not met,” he said. “We need realistic timelines.”
Why is this project taking so long?
Meldrum said the project initially had an “extremely aggressive” four to five month schedule. By the time Metro Vancouver completed the tendering process on the project and schedules were finalized with the contractor it was June 2021.
Based on a schedule from the contactor, he said a revised timeline indicated the project should take about six months to complete, potentially going into early 2022.
“But, since July of last year, we along with our contractor, have had several challenges in the project,” he told council Monday night. “I am not using these as excuses, but the reality in the ground that we have faced.”
Meldrum said the contractor has extensive slipline experience all across North America but they hadn’t worked in the Lower Mainland before, and it took a while for them to fully appreciate the required regulatory environment in B.C. Supply chain issues, extreme weather events in the fall in the form of atmospheric rivers, Omicron variant’s impacts on work crews and the need to relocate water mains also contributed to delays.
“With these initials delays, we ended up working in the rainy season, so this required additional steps and measures in order to control the flows in the pipe and prevent spills to the environment,” he said. “This also made working a slower process.”
Individually, these issues would be challenging, but combined they have had a significant impact on the project’s timeline.
“This is one of the two, if not the most challenging project, I have had the opportunity to work on in my career,” Meldrum told council.
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