Condition Assessment of Winnipeg, Manitoba’s Regional Water Distribution Reservoirs: Fid-Bau Portal

Condition Assessment of Winnipeg, Manitoba’s Regional Water Distribution Reservoirs

Amorim, David R. C. / Allen, Matthew N. / Glover, Michael D. / Dyck, Kenneth R.

The City of Winnipeg, Manitoba’s potable water distribution infrastructure consists of a complex system delivering water from Shoal Lake, located at the Manitoba/Ontario border, to the city’s residents over 135 km away via a gravity fed aqueduct. The aqueduct supplies the Deacon Reservoirs, the city’s main raw water storage reservoirs. From Deacon, the water is treated and supplied to three regional water distribution reservoirs strategically located throughout the city. These reservoirs are the MacLean Reservoir (205 ML capacity, constructed in 1962), McPhillips Reservoir (227 ML, 1974) and Wilkes North and South Reservoir (140 and 112 ML, 1980 and 1997). Considering the critical nature of these regional reservoirs to the city’s water distribution system, their advancing age and condition and the substantial cost of their complete replacement, the City of Winnipeg Water and Waste Department engaged Dillon Consulting Limited to provide consulting engineering services for the condition assessment of its regional reservoirs and to provide recommendations to extend the service lives of these critical assets by fifty (50) years. The inspection of structural closed-cell (buried) potable water reservoirs of this nature requires considerable planning, especially given their size and classification as confined spaces in addition to their operational limitations. This paper presents a number of challenges generally associated with the condition assessment of potable water reservoirs that any prospective assessment party should consider in planning their work. The challenges are presented as a series of questions for the reader’s consideration followed by a description of how they applied to the City of Winnipeg assignment.