Redcliff’s new lift station in the works

By Justin Seward
Redcliff town council had a decision on their hands as to what to do with the community’s sanitary sewer trunk upgrade after  director of planning and engineering James Johansen outlined the report on April 24.
The report initially stated that MPE Engineering Ltd., was going to design storage tanks and SCADA systems for the Third Avenue and Third Street NW and the Jesmond life stations. However, it was during the preliminary review process that it was suggested my MPE that a new lift station would be more fasible to build one  at Fifth Avenue and Third Street S.W. rather than constructing a storage tank at the Jesmond lift station because of its limited access.
A new lift station would divert approximately half of the Jesmond lift station’s catchment area and solve any capacity problems. Johansen said with the tight quarters for workers at the Jesmond site, the engineering department had come up with other solutions for sanitary flow. The options presented were to continue with the storage tank at the Jesmond lift station, building a new lift station at Fifth Avenue and Third Street S.W. or upgrading the sewer trunk to divert flows from the Jesmond lift station  at Fifth Avenue and Third Street S.W.  Council focused their discussion on a new lift station at Fifth Avenue and Third Street S.W.
“If you recall, the Jesmond project was basically a band-aid that was going to help us to the point where we can do those upgrades to begin with,” said Coun. Cathy Crozier. “We’re going to have to get them done anyway, so why not get them done now.” Coun. Larry Leipert said he would support Fifth Avenue and Third Street S.W. project to prevent from basements getting flooded. However, he  was uncertain about moving flow in the wet weather condition and flooding the people on Main Street.
“I think another thing we should concentrate on is leaving town water out of the sanitary system because we do have a capacity issue,” said Leipert. “I don’t think we can pump flow past Main Street without having a major issue. Those pipes you had identified have stopped from businesses from being flooded and it has helped to a great degree. It’s substantial rainfall that they are in jeopardy. I would hate to see us adding to the problem.”
Johansen assured by building a new lift station at Fifth Avenue and Third Street S.W.  that it will have storage to handle wet weather flows because the additional cost would be minimal, however, the off-site levy projects come into play to replace the sanitary sewer line.  The line in the off-site levies was recorded as being undersized from intersection of Fifth Street and Broadfoot Crescent to Main Street and Seventh Avenue, while there were was the two block area of Seventh to Ninth Avenue that are non off-site levy projects.  “We looked at those and said we have all this stuff that requires upgrading in the future but some of those off-site levy calculations were in the near term,” said Johansen.
“We found the costs were not too horrific and with a little more research on it and doing some calculations on what it would cost us and brought to you for consideration.” Council’s decision was  to direct administration to proceed with a detailed design of a new lift station at Fifth Avenue and Third Street SW. The small lift station will run at a cost similar to that of  Jesmond’s  of  $200,000.