A look at the first phase of upgrades to the North End sewage treatment plant

CTV Photojournalist takes viewers on a look inside the first phase of the city’s North End Sewage Treatment Plant project.

The city is nearing a significant milestone for the North End sewage treatment plant.

The first phase of the more than $3 billion project is months away from being completed as the finishing touches are being put on the new Headworks facility.

Construction started back in 2021, which was focused on a new power substation and infrastructure that will be used to pump sewage into the plant to be treated.

The pump station is replacing the current facility that was originally built in 1937.

“If you think of a sump pump in your house, there’s eight sump pumps here, except they happen to be seven stories tall and about 4,000 times larger,” said Rob Black, the deputy project director at the treatment plant, during a media tour of the facility.

Once the new facility is up and running at full capacity, Black said the current plant where the sewage runs through will eventually be demolished, with only the infrastructure underground connected to the Headworks building staying in place.

The new pumps are positioned symmetrically, Black said, which allows staff to completely turn off one side for repairs, if needed, without interrupting the flow of sewage in the building.

“Each one of these pumps (can handle) 156 megalitres a day, which is about 28,000 gallons per minute,” he said. “The pump itself is down here and there’s a drive shaft that goes all the way up to the top floor where the motor is located. So this room could actually, technically, be flooded, and these pumps will still function.”

The new building also has two areas to help remove large and small objects from the water, everything from children’s toys and hygiene products to things like sand and silt that are larger than six millimetres in size.

“So this part of the process improves efficiency and reduces wear and tear on the balance of the facility by removing the sand and silt and the abrasive material that’s in the sewage.”

All the non-liquid materials that are removed from the water get sent to the landfill. Currently, that is around 19,000 tonnes every year, with that number going up when the upgrades are complete.

The price tag for the project has changed throughout the years, with the first phase settling at $565 million.

If everything goes according to plan, the second phase of the project is expected to start construction in the back half of 2026. That phase would build a new biosolids facility. It currently has a budget of $1.035 billion.

The final phase is expected to cost $1.57 billion, and it would be used to build a new facility to remove nutrients from the treated water, making it cleaner when it enters the river, and ensuring the environmental license requirements are met. Construction is scheduled to start in 2028.

When the entire project is complete, it’s believed Winnipeg’s economy could grow by 16.4 per cent and the plant would be able to handle a population of more than one million people.