It’s not your everyday challenge to tunnel a 6,000-metre-long 1,500-mm watermain in southwest Brampton under Highway 407 then ramp more pipe under the Credit River and five other creeks.
Infrastructure
Project started as single job but was split into five
BRAMPTON, Ont.
It’s not your everyday challenge to tunnel a 6,000-metre-long 1,500-mm watermain in southwest Brampton under Highway 407 then ramp more pipe under the Credit River and five other creeks.
But those aren’t the only challenges of the $41 million Heritage Road project which has been divided into five different contracts, four of which are now under construction under Aecon, Varcon Construction Co. Ltd., TACC and King City Group Ltd.
Designed to meet the anticipated growth in that area of Brampton, the watermain is being installed from just south of Highway 407 up Heritage Road for approximately 5,000 metres and then east along an easement to Mississauga Road where it will connect with the now-being-built West Brampton reservoir and pumping station near Bovaird Road.
While there are plans to transform it into a four-lane urban thoroughfare, Heritage Road is a rural two-lane road dotted with a large number of apple, strawberry and other pick-your-own market growers, says Peel Region project manager Bill Turner.
As September and October is the prime picking season, the region agreed that access to those farms would not be blocked during those critical months. It was one of the conditions in awarding contracts and hasn’t proved to be a problem, he says.
By the first of September the watermain installation had almost reached the point where it reached the easement right of way and both lanes of Heritage Road are now open, says Turner.
“The contractors will come back in November and finish the closure work.”
In addition to maintaining access to the farms, strict controls on dewatering are in place to limit the impact on the large number of private wells in the area, says Arbinder Hundal, project manager with AECOM, the consulting engineer.
“We will make sure they (the residents) are supplied with water if there is any loss.”
Originally envisioned as one massive project, the watermain installation was divided into five separate contracts.
That was done to ensure obtain competitive pricing and to ensure that speciality subcontractors were brought on board.
“There is considerable trenchless technology involved” says Hundal, citing the tunnelling work, plus the pipe ramming system now being used by TACC to install the watermain under the Credit River.
The fifth contract will be for the installation of tunnel under Highway 407.
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