RSR wastewater project awards tender

The Red-Seine-Rat (RSR) Wastewater Co-operative just awarded tender for the first phase of the multiphase wastewater treatment plant construction project.

Toronto-based AECON, a construction firm with more than 100 years of experience in infrastructure and utility projects, was awarded tender for the first phase of the $235 million wastewater treatment plant, which will be built north of the Town of Niverville.

“We started it back in 2019, I believe, and finally, we are somewhere where we can start working and doing things. So, it’s great to hear that we have come to a point where we can go ahead and do something,” said co-operative chair Jim Funk.

Funk is reeve of the RM of Hanover, which is part of the six-member co-operative that includes the RMs of Tache, De Salaberry (Otterburne), La Broquerie, and Ritchot, and Niverville. The wastewater project will service 13 communities in those RMs once built.

AECON was selected through a competitive procurement process, where the company demonstrated strong technical capacity and experience delivering complex infrastructure projects and willingness to work collaboratively on value engineering and cost control, said Funk.

The first phase of the project will see the building of the plant at a budgeted amount of $205 million. The federal and provincial governments have granted $61.74 million to the project. The co-operative has also received loans from the Canadian Infrastructure Bank ($51 million initial investment of a $140 million cap) and Access Credit Union has also approved a loan, but Funk couldn’t recall the amount. The remaining amount will be covered by the municipalities.

The cost of the wastewater plant, and its 100 kilometres of pipelines, has increased from $110 million when the project was first announced in 2019 to its current budget of $235 million. Funk said AECON will be working through “value engineering measures” to meet the budget. Should costs increase, the matter will go back to the board for review.

In a previous interview with The Carillon, RSR community consultant Gordon Daman told the paper that a 10 percent contingency was put into the budget to account for a rise in construction costs from U.S. tariffs on aluminum and steel.

Daman also told The Carillon that the pipes and lift stations will be tendered later and split into three contracts to give smaller local contractors a chance to get tender.

Manitoba’s Minister of Municipal and Northern Relations Glen Simard told The Carillon in December that the project was seen as a high priority because the Southeast is one of the fastest growing regions in the province.

“We’re putting pipes in the ground, so to speak, to make sure that the foundational infrastructure is there so approvals can happen and planning can happen,” he said at the time.

“When you put the foundation in first and build a solid one, growth around it can be done on really strong footing.”

The project ensures residential growth is accommodated for the next 30 to 50 years with the ease of expending the mechanical plant in phases resulting in the build of almost 13,000 new housing units throughout the municipalities. It is projected that over the next 10 years, this project will result in almost $1.9 billion of new capital investment and construction and some 3,400 new jobs for the region.

It is also projected that the facility will save taxpayers about $60 million in lagoon expansion and replacement costs over its first decade of operation.

The plant will result in an overall net CO2 emission reduction of 93 percent as the municipalities transition from a lagoon system to a mechanical system. The existing lagoons will be used as holding ponds. Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck told The Carillon in an earlier interview that the project would save almost 1,800 acres of agricultural land from becoming lagoons.

The plant will mechanically treat the wastewater, converting it into clean water, and will use processes that can reduce the water’s phosphorous and nitrogen levels. The water can then be reused and/or put into the Red River.

Funk estimates construction will begin in the spring once the final design is approved in March and pricing confirmed in early April. He said the project will be completed in three years.