The construction of a new sanitary pumping station may not be the most glamourous project currently underway at the Canadian Port of Entry (POE), but it is certainly a vital one.
Pumping stations are used to store and eventually move wastewater to a reclamation plant where it is treated. The Brighton Beach Pumping Station, one of 43 pumping stations operated by the City of Windsor, is located within the footprint of the Canadian POE and must be relocated. A new pumping station is being constructed near the Keith Transmission Station and adjacent to the Perimeter Access Road (PAR) on Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) land. Once completed, both the pumping station and the PAR will be handed over to the city
Construction of the new pumping station began with the installation of a sheet pile wall. Twenty prefabricated sections were vibrated into the ground to form a seven-metre diameter circle. A pit inside the wall was dug out by an excavator which was operated at ground level. Once the excavated area reached a depth of eight metres, a min-excavator was lowered into the pit to dig an additional 1.5 metres. Over 357 m3 of earth - equivalent to 36 dump truck loads – was removed from the pit to form what eventually will become the pumping chamber.
Curved steel ribs are then welded to the inside of the sheet piles and the interior of the pumping chamber is then encased in concrete. A structure housing a generator is then constructed directly above the pumping chamber.
Once in operation, the pumping station will have the capacity to pump about 75 litres of wastewater per second.
