Work on the new Wastewater Pump Station No.1 in the City of Melville is ongoing.
Director of Public Works Andrew Fahlman pegs the project at the halfway point and noted it’s on track to be finished by the end of this fall.
When completed, Fahlman says the new Lift Station will approximately 185 litres per second of pumping capacity, more than the old one that had just 100 litres per second of pumping capacity.
He is looking forward to starting up the new Lift Station as the old one was tested again during last week’s heavy rain.
“Public works crews were out all day Friday, all day Saturday right through the night and well into early morning hours of Sunday just overseeing and making sure those pumps didn’t fail. We were at our peak levels and very high risk of flooding residential basements with sewage.” Fahlman said.
Fahlman says it is also on track to be under the $5.6-million budget.
Melville Mayor Walter Streelasky is pleased with how things are going despite recent challenges.
“Winter was hard on us but these people were very determined,” he said of the contractors working through the winter to get the project started. “It just amazes me how they worked in that cold, cold weather. Now we’ve had some rains, it caused some problems, but it seems to be very well managed, very well coordinated.”
Westridge Construction – the contractor for the project – is almost done with the backfill, the skeleton of the station itself is up, and the next step is installing the mechanical components, such as pumps and valves.
(Photo: City of Melville)
