The expansion of Dauphin’s sewage lagoon officially got underway with the awarding of a contract for engineering services at a special meeting of city council, May 6.
Stantec Consulting Ltd. was awarded the contract for engineering services for the project at a cost of $1,114,136.96.
The project was advertised through a request for proposals on Mar. 6, and by the time it closed on Apr. 11, five proposals from engineering firms including JR Cousin Consultants Ltd., MPE, a division of Englobe, Dillon Consulting Ltd., WSP Canada Inc. and Stantec Consulting Ltd.
While Stantec’s bid was not the lowest it was by far the most comprehensive, Public Works and Operations director Mike VanAlstyne said.
VanAlstyne said Stantec approached the project with innovative ideas, while ensuring the City’s needs would be met. They took the time to visit the site during the tendering period, he said, and met with city workers to understand what challenges are currently facing the wastewater treatment infrastructure.
“They’re a one-stop shop. They’re a large engineering corporation that has vast experience in wastewater treatment facilities and water treatment,” VanAlstyne said, adding the firm is based out of Winnipeg.
“They just checked all the boxes.”
The first step for Stantec will be to take the lagoon study completed eight years ago and make sure the design for the expansion is still relevant today.
“They will be taking the design or the study that was completed in 2016 and they’ll be modernizing it and updating it based on current population projections and effluent loads,” VanAlstyne said.
“They’ll adjust for the next 20 years and design for a 20-year life what the upgrades need to look like.”
That being said, VanAlstyne does not expect there will be many changes to the plans.
“I expect the system to be the same. I think there’s been modernizations to some stuff, even though it was only eight years ago, to some of the treatment technologies,” he said.
“And our consultant has some very good ideas about some efficiencies, as well, that we could see. So we’ll see how it goes through the design phase.”
That design phase is expected to begin in the coming days after which Stantec will develop the tender documents and provide consulting services during the construction phase.
“Essentially it’s a 2-1/2 year project for them,” VanAlstyne said, adding the construction tender will be issued next March and construction is slated to begin in the summer of 2025 and the project will take anywhere from 14 months to 16 months to complete.
