University Center Sewer Retrofit

The Opportunity

In response to a surcharge of the sanitary system into the basement of the University Centre building, the University of Victoria engaged Westbrook Consulting Ltd to investigate the cause and develop a solution to the issue.

The Approach

In response to a surcharge of the sanitary system into the basement of the University Centre building, the University of Victoria engaged Westbrook Consulting Ltd to investigate the cause and develop a solution to the issue.

Upon investigation it was found that the sanitary service to the building was situated at a negative grade, causing the pipe to surcharge slightly in normal operating conditions, and to backflow into the building during peak use periods.

Due to the sanitary main being located beneath an expansion of the University Centre, the main could not be lowered to provide positive grade, and as such,  new routing of the main was proposed. This resulted in both the University Centre and the catchment upstream of the University Centre being redirected to a separate main lift station.

Westbrook provided the conceptual design, detailed design, preparation of tender documents, contract administration, and construction inspection throughout the project.

Challenges included extending the main within a high use pedestrian area, at a depth of 4 – 5 meters with a slope of 0.46%.

The project was completed in 2015.

Key Personnel: Bruce Crawshaw; Phil Cerrer;