Salmon Arm council has approved tweaks to a major water main upgrade planned for Canoe.
Since 2017, the Canoe Beach water main between Captain’s Cove Marina and the Canoe Beach lease lots, the main feed line from the water treatment plant, has seen three pipe breaks caused by corrosive soils.
“Each of these failures resulted in difficult repairs and could create capacity issues for Salmon Arm’s water supply depending on time of the year,” reported Rob Niewenhuizen, the city’s director of engineering and public works.
After reviewing a number of options for repairing the trunk main, staff determined the most cost-effective way would be pulling a smaller diameter pipe inside the existing pipe.
The project was approved in the 2020 budget with a project value of $280,000. But, since the fall of 2018 when the project budget was first prepared, pipe material costs have increased by more than 20 per cent, Niewenhuizen reported. However, the additional $50,000 needed won’t increase the city’s overall budget because a pump station project in another area had a $50,000 surplus.
Staff intend to complete the project in-house with the exception of the pipe fusing and pulling. It will have to be completed in the fall when lake levels and demand for water are low.
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Mayor Alan Harrison asked if the technology will be the same as what was used to repair the problem sewer main along the Foreshore Trail.
Niewenhuizen said they are two different technologies.
The one at the foreshore involved a fibreglass sock that was put into the existing pipe, expanded and then secured.
In Canoe, it will be a new pipe.
“We’re actually drilling in a second pipe,” Niewenhuizen explained. “So we’re going to be drilling the entire length because it’s in the foreshore, it’s an environmentally sensitive area, so we’ll be staging at either end, at Canoe Beach and at Captain’s Cove Marina.”
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