Purchasing under way for $1.2-million water treatment upgrade
By Kyra Hoggan
A $1.2-million water infrastructure project is well under way after council approved the hiring of Castlegar’s Venture Mechanical Systems Ltd. to undertake the upgrading and retrofitting of the city’s water treatment centre.
City director of transportation and civic works Chris Barlow said the $1.2-million price tag will be far easier to shoulder in light of Castlegar’s being granted $760,000 toward the project through the federal gas tax program.
“We’re going to be retrofitting our existing water treatment centre with UV reactors, which will provide us with dual-barrier protection, as mandated by IHA (Interior Health Authority),” Barlow said, adding what that means, in layman’s terms, is that chlorine and UV will protect our water supply by inactivating viruses and bacteria.
“The tender value of $869,161 is just for construction, we’ll still have to pay for engineering design and inspection,” he said, adding Venture’s was the lowest of five bids.
He said the anticipated completion date is late 2012.
“We’ve already started to order the UV reactors and other parts that require a long lead time, but actual construction won’t start until the fall.”
Finally, Barlow said the project is not near any residential or retail areas, and should not impact residents during construction.
Keep coming back to The Source in the coming weeks for updates on summer construction projects, city rebates and environmental programs, and more.
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