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Floor heaving leads to Water Distribution Facility delays

Construction does not always run smoothly and the City of Humboldt are being reminded of that with the ongoing construction at the Water Distribution Facility.
Water distribution plant
Work continues on the Water Distribution Facility after ground water under Reservoir #2 caused the reservoir’s floor to heave. Pictured: The inside of one of the old water reservoirs. photo courtesy of Peter Bergquist

Construction does not always run smoothly and the City of Humboldt are being reminded of that with the ongoing construction at the Water Distribution Facility.

After initially targeting a completion date of May for work at the facility, work continues due to a number of hiccups, most notably to reservoir #2.

Originally when the reservoir was emptied for general maintenance in February, there was some cracking that was noticed in the reservoir, which was expected, noted the project’s principal engineer Shaun McLeod at the June 12 council meeting.

It was after a substantial rainfall in May where the problems started.

The rainfall, contributed to an excess of ground water underneath the reservoir, which put a significant amount of pressure on the floor of the reservoir, causing it to heave and crack.

McLeod noted that once the floor heaved and cracked the ground water seeped through the floor and relived the problem with the ground water pressure, but now the reservoir floor contains a broken slab of concrete.

Despite the heaving in the floor, McLeod noted there was some good news as they could not find any compromises to the structure itself.

This has caused the need for approximately 1/3 of the reservoir floor to be replaced, meaning additional costs for the city.

There was a $200,000 contingency allowance built in to the contract, but due to the nature of the repairs an additional $125,604.72 was required to help fix the issue.

During the June 12 council meeting council voted in favour of moving ahead with the project, with the money coming from Public Works and Utilities reserves.

“I don’t see any option but to go ahead with this,” noted Mayor Rob Muench during the meeting.

With a large portion of the concrete being removed Muench raised concern about the ability to seal the slabs on concrete together, which McLeod noted would not be an issue.

“We’re going to have some rebar that goes into the existing structure and we’re going to use a fairly high quality bonding agent, like a glue, that we’re going to stick on the existing concrete so that the two slabs stick together and create a seal.”

In addition to the news about reservoir #2, McLeod detailed the whole project, which as of June 1 was approximately 93.5 per cent complete.

To date the project has seen the completion of the new reservoir in January, which is currently being used to supply the city while the other two are out of commission.

The new pumps have also been installed on all of the reservoirs, as well as new computer controls, and all exterior water main connections and interior piping has been complete.

Disinfection on the oldest reservoir, #1, should begin on June 13, with McLeod noting the goal would be to have it back in operation on the weekend.

Once work is done to finish repairing reservoir #2 it will need to be disinfected as well and will then be also operational.

These repairs on both reservoir #1 and #2 will also improve the city’s goal of reducing water loss, as the cracking in the reservoirs was contributing to that issue, noted McLeod.

City of Humboldt Public Works and Utilities Director Peter Bergquist says the anticipated completion date for all of the work at the facility is the middle of July.

“We want to get them fixed up properly before we put them back in service for many years.”

Once the project is complete and all three reservoirs are operational there should be no more boil water advisories for the city.