Work continues at Water Distribution Plant
Work has been ongoing to improve the Water Distribution Plant and once it is complete the residents of the city are going to notice a big difference.
Currently the project is approximately 75 per cent complete, says City of Humboldt Director of Public Works and Utilities, Peter Bergquist.
The project includes the upgrades of a number of aspects of the distribution plant including the outflow pumps, which push the water to the rest of the city, as well as adding another water reservoir to help increase the capacity of reserve water. The new pumps will now be large enough to help keep up, once the city grows, says Bergquist.
“The key is to have water service to the city plus fire flow capacity if need be. So if you have several fires or whatever you need to have capacity to push high volumes of water for liability purposes. You need that in case you have a big problem on your hands.”
With the larger pump the electrical infrastructure needed to be upsized to accommodate those other upgrades, says Bergquist.
“We also have a generator instead of just a simple back up pump so now we can run the entire building when we have a power outage.”
The new reservoir is the biggest part of the upgrade, says Bergquist who notes that it will increase the reservoir capacity to allow the city to hold enough water for a population of 9,000 people.
“We will now have enough to hold us through and not have to go on so many city wide PDWA’s, Precautionary Drinking Water Advisory’s. That’s the first big one because I think people have had enough of them and so have we.”
The upgrades were extremely necessary, says Bergquist, since the city was operating with equipment that had reached its capacity, whereas the upgrades have improved the equipment, giving it a 40-50 year lifespan, while also giving the city plenty of wiggle room for the future.
“We actually made the electronics and the pumping system inside the building able to take us to 12,000… if we surpass or get to the 9,000 population now we just need to put in another reservoir but we’re setup for the head works and everything for 12,000 people.”
The reservoir has been completed and is covered, says Bergquist, who notes that the city will now begin draining the old reservoirs so they can be inspected and repaired if need be.
Then in January, the new reservoir will be used to run the city, which has a smaller capacity than the other reservoirs, but Bergquist does not expect residents will see a difference.
“The reason why we’re doing it at that time of course is because people use less water during the winter season so when we were planning this process that was the best time to do it instead of summer when people are using a lot more water.”
With winter now here Bergquist says they planned the project so that all of the outside work would be completed come winter and they can now move inside and continue working on the project.
“Most of the work’s going to be occurring inside now until we get into the old reservoirs but they’re buried as well so that work will be outside but in a controlled and covered environment. Most of the work is now setting up the generator, the electronics, the new pumps, all that kind of fun stuff.”
Overall Bergquist is really pleased with how the project is moving along noting that they are right in line with their budget figures and are only minimally behind schedule.
“We’re not expecting any significant variances. We’re well within our current estimated contingency so the project’s actually moving ahead quite well,” he said.
“We have some sub-trades slipping a bit on their timelines but we’re trying to get them back up.”
The project will continue throughout the winter and spring, with Bergquist noting that everything should be fully up and running by May.
Centennial Park Project nears winter conclusion
Work has been well underway for the Centennial Park Project with projections saying that by the end of December 70 per cent of that phase of the project will be completed.
There are a number of phases of the project currently ongoing, which encompasses almost the entire plot of land surrounding the Uniplex.
Phase I of the project focuses on the north east corner of the land.
The many aspects of that phase of the project include the removal of the midget baseball diamond, installing irrigation and drainage for the future soccer and football field, adding drainage to the north parking lot, adding parking spaces to the east of the building as well as resurface the north parking lot with a fresh layer of gravel and finally the construction of the berm that runs along the ditch from 17th St. to Peck Rd. on Highway 5.
With winter now here the construction company will be wrapping up their current projects before breaking for winter, with the goal being that they will reconvene in early spring to complete the remaining 30 per cent, says Community and Leisure Services Director, Michael Ulriksen.
With the whole project not being completed by the end of winter Ulriksen noted during the Nov. 28 council meeting that a portion of the north parking lot will be blocked off for the winter, but says that residents should not notice a difference in available parking spaces compared to last year because they have increased parking to the east of the building, which should be completed by the end of December.
As of Dec. 6 portions of the parking lot have now been opened up.
Phase II of the project is approximately 90 per cent complete, says Ulriksen, who notes it includes the installation of the pump out station, adding more drainage to the north section of the grounds, which will be drained to the pump out station and also included the leveling of the dirt pile that was sitting in the northwest corner of the land.
Ulriksen noted that all of the projects they are currently working on were very necessary for the overall quality of the grounds, noting that this will help keep the grounds from flooding as often.
“In the last few months here we had no drainage on the grounds the water basically sat on the grounds until it either went into the ground or evaporated so basically now that we have drainage we shouldn’t have a lot of the problems that we’ve had in the past it’ll also help with the flooding problems that we’ve had off of 17th street.”
With a portion of the project being focused on the parking lot Ulriksen notes that the redesign reduces the amount of standing water left on the parking lot.
“They’ll be properly sloped and properly set up so that they will drain where they need to go… we have drainage right in there so we actually have storm drains built in where the water will run to.”
With the parking lot being sloped Ulriksen notes that there may be a difference in height between now and before, but he says it should not be very noticeable for those using the parking lot.
“It’s not going to be a dramatic change one way or the other in any areas but there’ll definitely be some changes to the slopes.”
The current plans are for the parking lots to be replaced with fresh gravel that has better drainage and says any plans past that will come from the current council.
“Whether we go beyond that and (pave) any sections, that’ll go back to council and they’ll determine whether that’s something they want to go ahead with in the near future or if that’s something that’s going to be a little ways down the road.”
The work has obviously impacted the short-term usability of the parking lot, noted Ulriksen, who says in the long term it will be of benefit to everyone.
A number of other short term loses include the removal of the grandstands, when the dirt was leveled out, with Ulriksen noting one of the largest loses was the removal of the midget ball diamond.
“We’ll be looking at ways we can work with minor ball to kind of move forward from here in the short term and obviously in the long term as to how we can ensure that those organizations aren’t impacted… and hopefully we can end up at the end of the day with something better that works really well for them and then works for the city as well.”
Once all of the projects are completed Ulriksen notes that it will then be up to council to decide how they want to proceed from there.
“When these are done we’re going to have an area that will be a lot nicer for people coming to use the facility as far as the parking lot goes… but again council is in now so the new council will kind of set the priorities and the time lines and the directives moving forward as far as the rest of the grounds go and getting them completed.”
In the meantime, once all of the current phases of the projects are complete there will be a considerable difference for residents, says Ulriksen.
“That drainage will be huge for being able to use the ball diamonds that are currently on the grounds as well as the parking lot will definitely be a lot nicer now that we have that pretty much completed.”
