River Valley Process Line Repair done

Courtesy of the City of Williams Lake:

The City of Williams Lake has completed the replacement of a section of process line serving the Capital Power Plant destroyed last year, with a solution to avoid the problem in the future. The line is now functional.

A landslide in the River Valley adjacent to the Williams Lake solid waste transfer station destroyed a large section of the treatment water outfall from the Atlantic Power plant and a storm outfall pipe, which are critical components of City’s infrastructure. Emergency works were completed to ensure service was not interrupted.

Because the process line had to be replaced in its existing location, creative thinking was needed to return the pipe to the same location and not have the same thing happen again. To alleviate any future problems, the pipe was directionally drilled from the top of the escarpment to the bottom. Engineers found a layer of earth that was relatively stable that the drillers could stay under from the top of the escarpment to the bottom, so land from future slides would travel over the pipe, and not affect it. This drilling took months to complete, and the pipe has been re-established at both ends and the process water was able to be turned back on.

Design work for Phase 5 of the River Valley Stormwater Management system, which includes the replacement of the destroyed outfall sewer pipe, is almost complete