Millbrook Servicing Expansion

Sustainable growth is smarter growth

Bigger infrastructure isn’t necessarily better infrastructure. Growth must be strategically planned, and directly connected, to a cohesive vision to be truly effective. When the Township of Cavan Monaghan engaged our team, the Town of Millbrook was set to expand by 1,000 residential units. The township knew: this would require a lot more capacity within the water and wastewater servicing infrastructure. They also saw this necessary growth as an opportunity to build a more efficient and sustainable system in line with the Town’s values, and the citizens’ commitment to protecting the environment. We were all in for the task at hand.

Strong execution starts with even stronger strategy. For a $22.5 million project like this, that strategic plan had to also include financing considerations. In Millbrook, leadership was keen to jump on provincial and federal financing programs to bring the vision for a bigger, smarter water and wastewater system to life. But timelines were tight. With no design or plan in place, they’d have just 3.5 years to kick the project off, and move it to final completion, in order to capitalize on the funds available. That required us to get creative in our project design, and innovative in our execution.

By separating the overarching initiative into three separate projects, we were able to plan and execute the work in parallel. We set about expanding the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant and pumping station; building a new water storage tank with booster pumping station; and tackling associated watermain and sewer installations to support other projects. Splitting the work in this way enabled us to mitigate delays. Three separate projects also meant we could coordinate three separate contracts to keep things moving efficiently. It allowed us to phase the work through complex construction sequencing. Case in point: the new secondary treatment process was commissioned before the old facilities were taken offline and retrofitted. All of these efforts worked together to fuel continuous progress that was planned effectively and executed safely.

Today, Millbrook has significantly improved capacity along its network. More than that: operations and maintenance are running better. Because the new infrastructure is fully automated, Millbrook’s overall water and wastewater networks are more efficient. The pumping station alone has reduced the Town’s energy costs by about 30%. At the same time, these new facilities have raised the quality of effluent discharged into sensitive surrounding waterways and fisheries. We also removed sedimentation from the groundwater as part of the dewatering process to protect the natural surroundings. Proving every opportunity to grow is also an chance to do so while making things better for the planet itself.