Work is about to get underway on a major sewer upgrade in Ladner Village.
The city this week issued an advisory for residents that construction will commence on the new sanitary sewer main along Arthur Drive and Elliott Street.
The work begins at the south end of the project area, through the parking lot north of Ladner Community Centre. From there, the construction zone will move north along Arthur Drive and Elliott Street and tie-in to existing infrastructure at Bridge Street.
The sanitary sewer will be installed three-to-four metres below ground and will involve dewatering and treatment of groundwater. Low noise equipment will be operating 24 hours a day.
The project is scheduled from Sept. 11 to Dec. 15, 2023.
As far as traffic, the city notes construction will occur in the southbound travel lane of Elliott Street and Arthur Drive.
It will be a moving job site and parking will be restricted along portions of Elliott Street fronting the active construction zone. Single-lane alternating traffic will be implemented along Elliott Street, near the active construction zone.
Access for residents and businesses will be maintained at all times, although the city is asking for patience as some inconvenience will be unavoidable.
Council last month awarded a $3.2 million contract for the project to replace several hundred metres of existing sanitary sewer along Elliott Street from Bridge Street to the recently built 51st Street Pump Station.
The engineering department says the existing infrastructure was installed in 1963 and has come to an end of its service life. The upsizing of the sanitary main is also required to support future densification in Ladner Village.
The engineering department notes that inflationary pressures over the past couple of years created significant cost increases in labour and materials for the Elliott Street sewer project. Bids for the project came in significantly above the estimated budget.
As a result, the city deferred a sanitary sewer upgrade project elsewhere to transfer the 2023 funding that had been allocated to that project to cover the shortfall for Elliott Street upgrade.
Meanwhile, the city last month issued a request for proposals to construct seven other projects, including a new sanitary sewer forcemain along Ladner Trunk Road from Elliott to 55B streets. That new sewer is in the design phase, and it is envisioned that the pipeline will be installed via open cut method.
Construction is to start in the spring of 2025 with completion by that summer.
The city in its request for proposals noted that among the notable challenges with that project will be the high volume of traffic on Ladner Trunk Road.
