A 43-year-old undersized sewage pumping station in Warman is slated to be replaced with a high-capacity facility.
Warman City Council voted at a regular meeting on Monday, September 11 to approve the expenditure of $5,344,042.23 on a new lift station. Construction is slated to begin next year and should be completed by April, 2025.
Sewage Pumping Station (SPS) 3, located on Wilken Crescent adjacent to Linda Schaefer Park, was constructed in 1980. It was upgraded in 2006 with new pipes, but its wet well remained the same size. Replacing this facility has been on the City of Warman’s wish list of capital projects for years, but was always bumped down the priority standings during budget discussions.
Until last year.
That’s when city council approved a budget item of $3.521 million for the project.
That budget estimate, however, fell far short of what contractors were willing to do the job for.
According to a city administration report to the September 11 council meeting, tenders for the construction of a new lift station were received by the city on August 1, 2023. A total of eight companies submitted bids, with the lowest being Hipperson Construction Ltd, with a total bid of $5.344 million (which included $288,867.15 in PST and $240,722.62 in GST).
“Four other bids were within 10% of this bid, and deferring this project by another year or two will not guarantee lower bids,” stated the report, prepared by Warman Director of Infrastructure Colin Prang. “The tender was reviewed for efficiencies and based on the current wet weather flows the lift station is sized appropriately.”
The administration report notes that significant growth, including new residential and commercial buildings, infill development and the anticipated expansion of the Warman Home Centre Communiplex, is expected in the SPS 3 catchment area in the near future.
The report said in 2010, several large rain events that hit Warman overwhelmed the city’s lift stations, including SPS 3. The facility was designed to operate at a rate of 32 litres per second (L/s), but at that time was actually operating at a rate of 38 L/s due to high peak flows. Even that wasn’t sufficient to keep pace with the amount of water flowing through the facility. This resulted in flooded streets.
An engineering report in 2016 recommended a new lift station be built to replace the existing SPS 3. In 2019, an independent study confirmed SPS 3 was undersized and recommended a new facility. In 2020, the city’s public works department reported that SPS 3 was unable to keep pace with the water flow during a two-day rain storm, necessitating the use of vac trucks to pump water from flooded areas. The public works department estimated about 100 person-hours were required to keep the lift stations operating, and stated that replacing SPS 3 should be a priority.
Last month, after contractors had submitted bids on the project, Warman council was surprised by the difference between the budgeted amount and the prices tendered by contractors. At that time, council deferred a decision on proceeding, and instead instructed city administration to provide additional information.
The new lift station will have a much larger storage area (a 30-foot deep wet well), and its pumping capacity is increased from the current maximum of 38 L/s to 75 L/s. In the future, if required, the pumping capacity can be increased to 170 L/s by adding another force main.