Major Metro Vancouver infrastructure project reaches key milestone, remains on budget

One of the largest infrastructure projects in B.C.’s Lower Mainland has reached a major milestone.

It’s not quite Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, but workers building the Annacis Water Supply Tunnel have been spending a lot of time way underground.

The tunnel, which will carry drinking water between New Westminster and Surrey, passes 50 metres beneath the bottom of the Fraser River.

“During a major earthquake, the soil would lose strength and start to flow toward the river, for example. So, we want to make sure our tunnels are below that. That’s why we have deep shafts and a deep tunnel for these crossings,” said Murray Gant, the project manager.

The four-metre-diameter tunnel is one of several Metro Vancouver is constructing to keep water flowing in the event of a catastrophic quake.

It took a machine 18 months to bore the 2.3-kilometre tunnel – and that portion of the project was completed last month.

The next step is to install the actual pipe, which will be capable of carrying up to 600-million litres of drinking water per day.

According to project engineers, the depth of the tunnel, along with the inch-thick steel of the pipe, will allow it to withstand a one-in-10,000-year megathrust earthquake.

Several members of the Metro Vancouver board were on hand for Thursday’s announcement of the transition to the next phase of the project.

“You know, Metro Vancouver has had some unwarranted bad press, I would say, and commentary,” vice-chair John McEwen, the elected mayor of Anmore, said at a news conference.

“And this is a perfect example of a project that’s coming in on time and on budget.”

The board, made up of elected officials from the region’s 21 municipalities, has come under fire recently for its compensation.

The cost of the North Shore Waste Water Treatment Plant has also been a hot topic in the media and throughout the region.

Originally projected to cost about $700 million, the price tag for that project has ballooned by more than five times that to over $3.8 billion.

The budget for the Annacis Water Supply Tunnel is $450 million.

“The project is proceeding very well. And we look at the draw of that budget as the project proceeds,” said Jerry Dobrovolny, Metro Vancouver’s chief administrative officer. “And now that the tunneling portion is complete, we’re confident that will continue to be on time and on budget.”

Provided everything stays on track, drinking water should be flowing through the tunnel by 2028.