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Sep 25,2009 Tri City News

 

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Unstable rock caused the previous contractor to halt work on Metro's water tunnels inside Grouse Mountain last year.
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The drilling of water tunnels inside Grouse Mountain resumed over the summer with new contractors but Metro Vancouver now estimates it will be almost four years before they are in service.

The tunnels will connect the Capilano watershed to Metro's nearly finished state-of-the-art water filtration plant on the North Shore, which is slated to open later this year taking water only from the Seymour watershed initially.

Metro last year fired original tunnel contractor Bilfinger Berger, which had stopped work citing unsafe conditions earlier that year.

A new Metro staff report estimates it will take three replacement contractors until mid-2013 before the half-finished tunnels can be used.

Originally budgeted to cost $600 million, Metro now estimates the Seymour-Capilano Filtration Plant project will come in at $784 million.

The ultimate cost will depend on the outcome of a court battle – Metro and Bilfinger are suing each other over the contract termination.

The new plant will process water using filtration and ultra-violet disinfection.

The water filtration system is expected to end periods of storm-driven turbidity, like the one two years ago when murky water was stirred up and led to an unprecedented boil water advisory.


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