After months of sewer-upgrade work through Memorial Park West, this is the scene at 33rd Avenue and Highbury, looking south.
By Carol Volkart
I’ve been a little grumbly lately about the access to a favourite route of mine –the central walkway of Memorial West Park, with its spectacular avenue of towering trees. Green, gold or bare, they’re beautiful in all seasons.
But for the last few months, blue fencing, work trailers and machinery – and now mud, glorious mud – at the north and south entrances to the walkway – have forced many an awkward detour. All this endless construction! I complained.
Little did I know that the only reason I could use the walkway at all was that the city has been piloting new ways of replacing aging sewer lines.
Under my feet, a remotely controlled micro-tunnel boring machine has been hard at work, installing a concrete storm sewer between West 31st Ave. and West 33rd, right under the park’s main north-south walkway. The new technique also allowed crews to insert a smaller pipe inside the existing aging sewer main, a process called sliplining.
The alternative to all this was a great big open trench.
The “trenchless” method, according to a Dec. 18 city statement, “means most of the work happens underground, which helps keep the park open, preserves 24 mature trees, reduces the impact on residents and shortens the construction period.”
The project is part of the city’s efforts to upgrade the aging sewer infrastructure in our area. Up to now, it’s been a combined system – water and sewage ends up together, with nasty results when heavy rain causes overflows. Now there will be a separated, larger-capacity system, with one pipe for rainwater runoff and another pipe for sewage.
The tunnelling work on the $10.6-million project began in October and is considered a success. “The successful tunnel installation shows that this innovative trenchless method has the potential to work well for future utility projects,” Mayor Ken Sim said in the December city statement.
Tunnel map
Equating success with completion, I thought the coast would be clear when I went for a walk to the park on Saturday. Sadly, the blue fences, the work trailers, the heavy machinery and the mud were all just where I’d seen them last.
And worse is yet to come. At some point, both the walkway and the playground will be closed for three to four weeks to allow crews to complete the required work safely, the city says. Construction is anticipated to be completed by spring 2026.
I won’t complain, though. If micro-tunnelling saved that glorious walkway of trees from a trench, a few awkward detours and a temporary closure are very small prices to pay. And maybe Dunbar’s pilot will pay off similarly in other neighbourhoods around the city.
Sewer tunnel work at Memorial West Park. Photo from City of Vancouver.