Alleged construction issues at city water plant cost $47M to fix

Repairs to address alleged construction deficiencies at Winnipeg’s drinking water treatment plant, which opened in December 2009, are expected to continue until at least the mid-2030s and cost millions of dollars more than the city first expected.

Two of six key repair projects have yet to be completed. Work is still underway to determine the best option to secure sodium hypochlorite (which disinfects water), while a project to improve the surface of concrete tanks will take years to complete, a new city report notes.

“I’m really concerned. It’s been a long time. The plant was finished in 2009,” said Coun. Ross Eadie, city council’s water and waste chairman.

The city’s water and waste department now expects to spend about $38 million to rehabilitate concrete tanks, with construction on a first phase of that work slated to start at the end of 2026 and take about 4.5 years to complete, the report notes. Phase 2 and a final third phase of concrete repairs are not expected to begin until after that initial step is completed.

The report stresses the problems have not affected the quality of the city’s drinking water.

Eadie (Mynarski) noted several reasons for delay on the repairs, including the city’s initial attempt to sue over the alleged construction flaws.

By 2012, the $300-million Deacon water treatment plant suffered from a leaky roof and some equipment had failed and/or exploded, a city legal statement claims.

The city filed a lawsuit in 2015 against multiple builders over alleged construction deficiencies at the plant. Those allegations were never tested in court, however, because the city missed a key legal deadline to move the case forward.

“We’re not getting any money for it (the repair work), so the ratepayers are paying for it. So, that’s my biggest concern,” said Eadie.

Some of the delay is linked to the fact the city must schedule projects to avoid any disruption in the essential task of treating drinking water.

“It’s very frustrating but the plant is operating,” said Eadie.

The councillor fears construction inflation will continue to push the price higher in the future.

In addition to the estimated $38 million for concrete work, the city confirms it spent $8.8 million on previous plant repairs, bringing to total to nearly $47 million so far.

The total repair tab was expected to cost $31 million in 2022, based on preliminary estimates.

An initial $6-million repair estimate was shared in 2018, though the city says that did not include the cost of the concrete work.

Some price changes are linked to very early cost estimates provided before the full design for repairs was completed, while normal maintenance may also be required by this point, said Tim Shanks, the city’s water and waste director.

“The issue was, when this was brand new, a lot of these things should have lasted longer,” said Shanks.

The city is still determining if it should continue to order sodium hypochlorite or add a system to generate it on-site, as initially planned. On-site generation could require additional spending, though it will only by pursued if it produces operating savings, said Shanks.

“We’re not getting any money for it (the repair work), so the ratepayers are paying for it.”

A preliminary design for a potential on-site sodium hypochlorite generating system is expected to be completed by the second quarter of this year.

The timeline to repair the plant was extended by several factors, including the city’s potential legal challenge and the fact some deficiencies couldn’t be immediately detected, said Shanks.

“Time was needed to actually identify some (of the issues). The concrete, actually, is a perfect example … The concrete surfaces, after a few years of operation, seem to have degraded more than expected,” he said.

All repairs should be completed by the “mid-2030s,” though new complications or funding priorities could change that date, said Shanks.

The most pressing repairs at the plant were completed within two to three years and the remaining work does not have an immediate impact on plant operations, he noted.

Previous repairs fixed the roof of the main plant, roofs on smaller buildings, standby generators (that provide backup power) and addressed a capacity concern at small ponds used to store waste material.

Coun. Brian Mayes, a former chairman of the water and waste committee, called for more information to be released about the repairs and the timeline to complete them.

“This thing has been going on since 2009, so we should have some handle on what went wrong, especially, because we’re not going to recover any of (the money). So, we should learn some lessons from this,” said Mayes (St. Vital). “How can these things take this many years this is really the question.”

Mayor Scott Gillingham referred questions about the project’s timeline and cost to the water and waste department on Tuesday. The mayor stressed city council will get the work done.

“We continue, as a city, to make the investments in our water and our wastewater facilities. That infrastructure is critical to the citizens of Winnipeg,” said Gillingham.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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