Water Station 1, located in the park near Clark College and East Fourth Plain Boulevard, has slaked the city’s thirst for more than a century. Now two reservoirs holding 5 million gallons, built in the early 1900s, need to be replaced.
When the project is all complete, the water station will have an additional 3 million gallons in reservoir capacity and a new 1 million gallon standpipe to replace the existing water tower.
Vancouver’s waterworks features 40 wells distributed between nine water stations. Last year, they pumped 9.8 billion gallons of water serving 253,000 customers. Water Station 1 is home to 12 of those 40 wells.
The Vancouver City Council received an update on the project Monday night from Water Engineering Program Manager Tyler Clary and Senior Civil Engineer Michelle Henry.
Phase 1 began in 2016 with construction of a new tower booster pump station, a new treatment building and installing upgrades to lighting and pathways.
As the project moves into Phase 2, the bulk of the project will begin. Both reservoirs and the standpipe will be replaced, and a new East Reserve Street entrance will be constructed. The park’s pedestrian and bike paths will also be improved. While construction crews are onsite, Henry said they will also upgrade the site’s security. This includes a new control system.
“It made sense because we’re changing so much at the site,” she said. Much of the hardware and software is outdated, which increases cybersecurity risks.
Bidding for construction will begin in March with a tentative completion date of December 2021. Phase 2 will cost approximately $23 million. The total project will cost between $35 and $40 million. Phase 1 came to about $12 million.
Phase 3 will focus on replacing three wells that are known to fail. The council approved an annual 5 percent water rate increase through 2020 in 2016 to fund the project.
“This is the biggest project we’ve undertaken in a long time,” Clary said. “This is about reliability, it’s about emergency preparedness and it’s also about security of the site. It’s just making sure we have our most important site and our most important assets so that they’re not vulnerable and so that they are reliable for us.”
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