Associated Engineering selected for major process upgrade at City of Toronto’s R.L. Clark Water Treatment Plant

Filter gallery in the R.L. Clark Water Treatment Plant

The R.L. Clark Water Treatment Plant is one of four water treatment plants operated by the Water Treatment & Supply Section of Toronto Water. Located in the west end of Toronto, the plant was constructed in 1962 and completed in 1968.

The plant was designed for an initial capacity of 454 million litres per day with an ultimate built-out capacity of 1,365 million litres per day. A recent assessment of the plant resulted in a re-rating of the plant’s capacity from 454 million litres per day to 615 million litres per day without any structural or process additions to the facility. The plant consists of the following processes:

• Raw water intake from Lake Ontario
• Pre-chlorination
• Mixing and coagulation
• Flocculation
• Filtration
• Sedimentation
• Disinfection
• Fluoridation
• Ammoniation
• Powdered activated carbon for taste and odour control in the summer months
• Post chlorination and
• Pumping into the distribution system.

The City of Toronto identified the need for engineering services to upgrade various process elements at the plant. Through a competitive proposal process, the City selected Associated Engineering to provide consulting engineering services for the plant upgrade. Our project team will undertake the following:

• All civil, landscaping, building, process, mechanical, electrical, and instrumentation engineering to provide new and upgraded systems.
• Miscellaneous works, including energy management, review of design for compliance with Toronto Green Development Standard, and removal of asbestos-contaminated products in the areas affected by the construction works if required.

Key technical aspects of the project include:

• Filtration System Upgrade and Retrofit
• Air Scour Considerations
• Future Ultraviolet Disinfection and Ozonation Retrofit
• Sluice Gate Refurbishment and Provision of Electrical Actuators
• Architectural Building Renovation
• Work Sequence and Tie-In Specifications.

Corporate Sponsor, Bill De Angelis advises, “Within these design and construction administration tasks, we broke the project down into five design themes.” Project Manager, Fred Albanese adds, “This is a proven approach that we have successfully applied on other major plant upgrade projects.”

The five themes are:

• Theme #1 – Intake, Screen Room, Low Lift and High Lift Pump Houses and Sedimentation Tanks
• Theme #2 – Filter Building
• Theme #3 – Chemical Systems
• Theme #4 – Reservoir and Structure
• Theme #5 – Laboratory and Miscellaneous Items.

In addition, we identified common areas to be completed that crossed the various tasks and themes. These included project management, quality assurance and quality control reviews, site investigations, permits and approvals, public consultation meetings, workshops, manuals, and reports. Fred advises, “We have started preliminary design and expect to complete detailed design and tender by August 2009.”