WC145 NovDec 2025 - Magazine - Page 23
R to L: While the project is scheduled in phases, the new system won’t be commissioned until the last pipe
is laid and all nuts and bolts are in place.
Metro Vancouver
With water demands and shortages expected to intensify in the years ahead due to climate change, Metro
Vancouver has $3 billion worth of water related infrastructure projects on tap over the next 昀椀ve years.
new $1.66-billion Coquitlam Water Main Project. Adding 12
kilometres to an already extensive regional network might seem
like a drop in the bucket, but Bob Cheng, director of major
projects, says the location of the new main effectively delegates
it as a major backbone to the overall network, and the pipe’s
planned larger than average diameter is meant to ensure its
capacity to meet growing demand.
Plans call for installing the new pipe over four project phases.
The first stretch, from Robson Drive to Guildford Way, is already underway, with completion anticipated in late 2026. The
second stretch, a pre-build along Dewdney Trunk Road from
Lougheed Highway to Westwood Street scheduled to commence in 2026, will eventually reach Metro Vancouver’s Cape
Horn Pump Station and Reservoir at Hickey Drive and Mariner
Way. A third stretch from Robson Drive to the north end of
Pipeline Road, where it will eventually connect to Coquitlam’s
water treatment plant, is slated for construction from 2026 to
2032. The fourth and final phase, a new two-kilometre tunnel
underneath the city centre, is undergoing detailed design and is
expected to begin in 2027, with completion in 2034. The new
pipe will measure between 2.2 and 3.2 metres in diameter, with
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
COQUITLAM WATER MAIN PROJECT
$1.66 billion
Location: Coquitlam
Project Owner: Metro Vancouver
Construction Manager: Stantec
Engineer: Jacobs, Stantec, Hatch, WSP
Contractor: Michels, Clearway Construction
Substantial Completion: 2034
the tunnel section slightly wider at 3.5 metres, and when all
four sections are completed Metro Vancouver will connect the
new main to its regional supply system.
“This work is part of our overall program to upgrade Metro
Vancouver’s Coquitlam supply system,” Cheng says. “We’re expecting to add a million residents to the region by about 2050,
so that’s going to have a huge impact on demand for water,
and there’s also climate change,” Cheng says. “We don’t know
exactly what’s going to happen but the science tells us it’s going
to have an impact on how much water we can provide.”
The new Coquitlam water main will draw from the Coquitlam Reservoir, which happens to be the largest of the three, and
Cheng says the project to build the main ties in with a separate
undertaking, currently in the planning stages, to build a new
intake, tunnel and treatment plant at the reservoir to double
its capacity. So, while climate change might reduce the snow
pack in the mountains and intensify floods and droughts, the
new infrastructure is the regional district’s game plan to address
future challenges, with the new Coquitlam main ultimately
enabling delivery of water supplies enhanced upstream. “Every
few years we do a comprehensive regional water supply plan,”
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