City of St. Catharines implements combined sewer overflow abatement strategy
October 1, 2021
Located in the Niagara region in south-central Ontario, the City of St. Catharines is known as “The Garden City” with its lush parks, gardens, and trails. As such, maintaining and enhancing park amenities were important components of the city’s Burleigh Hill/Glendale Avenue combined sewer overflow (CSO) abatement strategy and infrastructure project.
The City retained Associated Engineering to provide design and construction services for new combined sewer overflow (CSO) control works, sanitary sewers, a watermain, and road and intersection improvements in the Burleigh Hill / Glendale Avenue area. The project included a new CSO tank constructed within Glengarry Park, located north of the intersection of Brookdale Avenue and Glengarry Road. During a major storm event, any overflows from sewers will be directed to the CSO tank.
Dan MacDonald-Lockhart, Structural Engineer, explains, “The CSO tank stores up to 3,200 cubic metres of combined sewer overflow until a storm passes. Sewage will then be pumped back into the sanitary sewer system. Initial results of the geotechnical investigation indicated a deep foundation solution was required for support of the tank. Our structural team worked with the geotechnical subconsultant to provide an alternate solution that resulted in a shallow foundation, saving substantial costs.”
Careful planning and design of the CSO tank, including its size and location, were required to minimize potential impact to properties backing onto Glengarry Park. Following the CSO tank construction, Glengarry Park was reinstated with a new recreational trail, basketball court, playground equipment, and landscaping.
Other works implemented as part of the project include upsizing the Glengarry Road and the Burleigh Hill Drive sanitary sewers, ranging in diameter from 375 to 600 millimetres. In addition, a new dedicated bypass sewer was installed along Warkdale Drive. The existing cast iron watermain was replaced with a new 400 millimetre diameter PVC watermain.
This project was completed as a joint effort with the Regional Municipality of Niagara. The project team addressed deteriorating roadway pavement conditions and traffic operational and safety issues, and designed new asphalt pavement, traffic signals, streetlighting, curbs, storm sewer reconnections, sidewalk, cycling facilities, landscaping, and streetscaping along Glendale Avenue and Burleigh Hill Drive.
“These improvements to the road infrastructure aligned with the Region’s strategic vision for long-term transportation needs in Niagara by providing pedestrian and cycling facilities. New infrastructure improves the integration of the roads and highways network for the movement of people and goods.” - Project Manager, Mark Belanger
In addition, the City’s CSO abatement strategies met the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) Procedure F-5-5, providing additional protection against basement flooding.
The $8 million project was successfully completed in the fall 2020.
Key personnel on this project included Mark Belanger, Herb Kuehne, Don Bai, Dan MacDonald-Lockhart, Lindsay Mooradian, Dave Harris, Kerri Hildebrandt, and Stan Angrilli.
