Main pipeline in regional waterline 80 per cent complete, said Sawchuk

The main pipeline in the regional waterline from Cold Lake to Bonnyville is roughly 80 per cent complete and the project is slated to be done by the end of summer in 2020, said M.D. Reeve Greg Sawchuk on The Morning After.

“You can kind of look at it in parcels. The tender went out in four pieces. As far as the main pipeline, the pipe in the ground, that’s sitting at nearly 80 per cent now,” he said.

“The good news is that the hardest part of the pipeline going underneath of the river is complete,” said Sawchuk.

Sawchuk, the chair of the Bonnyville Regional Water Services Commission after Mayor Gene Sobolewski stepped down, said the Beaver River Crossing posed the biggest threat to the regional waterline’s anticipated completion time.

With environmental restrictions forcing the project to be finished by January, Sawchuk said that hurdle has been jumped over.

“That was a real worry for a bit, to be honest. If that wasn’t done by the end of January, because there is a small window that you have to get it done during the winter, that would have delayed the project a year. But it’s done. Now those tie-ins can happen along the way,” said Sawchuk.

The $84 million project is divided into four tenders and work began late in 2018.

The waterline will run from the Cold Lake Water Treatment Plant, along the Iron Horse Trail to a transfer station near 4 Wing Cold Lake. Then it runs beside Hwy. 28, before moving back onto the trail until it reaches the Bonnyville reservoir and pump house.

“The end portion, the delay, will be in the main station in Cold Lake, your transfer, and your pumping station on the other side of the river and then the receiving end down here [Bonnyville]. As far as time frames, the main pipeline should be done late spring, but those main buildings, that’s going to be a little bit longer. The last thing I heard is maybe we’re looking at the end of summer, fall type of thing,” he said.

In November, Cold Lake First Nations became a member of the Bonnyville Regional Water Services Commission as a connection is seized up, allowing CLFN to receive the water.

An additional tie-in project to Frog Lake is in the offing, as the Town of Bonnyville sent out a request for qualifications in July.