The Brief
Anything is possible in a community with water. As climate change continues to reshape the flow and force of water around the world, we worked with the City of Moncton to create a more reliable and secure water supply for generations to come.
Project Overview
Secure water today for a more secure tomorrow
A reliable and secure water supply is the lifeblood of any municipality. As climate change continues to impact conditions across Canada, and the globe, municipalities are rethinking the way they manage water supply. Doing so strategically means building enough agility into the network to balance evolving citizen needs against changing weather patterns.
When drought conditions prompted the City of Moncton to add millions of cubic metres of water storage to the network, we were engaged to design and build the Tower Road dam and reservoir. Our mission was clear: engineer a facility fit for purpose now, and capable of ensuring adequate water supply in future.
Predesign reports are the foundation of projects like this. To map the overall design of the dam, we carried out extensive research to understand the lay of the land. This critical, predesign work allowed us to ensure the project we designed could be constructed successfully, and equally important: safely. We considered every aspect of construction during this phase, from the physical size of the dam to the capacity of its spillway and reservoir, right through to the environmental considerations of a new head pond. Those initial findings formed the basis of our overall design, and surfaced key guidance that would shape the construction phase to come.
The dam itself is massive. At 20 m high and 1.5 km long, tendering the project into two separate contracts would be absolutely essential. By separating dam construction and reservoir clearing, we created a project plan that kept us moving forward efficiently and safely over the course of six years. During that time, we built the earthen dam, as well as a concrete utility access tunnel with submerged intake; a concreate spillway and related overflow capacity components; and a bridge section with piers meant to allow for radial gates and additional water storage.
Today, the reservoir provides this part of New Brunswick with more than 16 million m3 of raw water storage. It also provides Moncton’s water treatment plant with a reliable, secure and continuous water supply. Registered and approved by the provincial and federal governments, the dam now plays a pivotal part in the everyday lives and long-term success of people and businesses alike.
Gallery
