Mount Brydges is a community of approximately 2,000 people located in the Municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc between Strathroy and the City of London. Starting in the mid- 1990’s, pressure for new development and groundwater contamination from existing septic systems resulted in a Class EA study to look for solutions. After investigating several options, a communal sewage collection and treatment system for the core of the community, readily expandable to the balance, was selected as the preferred project. Financial constraints delayed the initiation of the project until 2009.
Due to the magnitude and nature of the project, design and construction was divided into multiple contracts. In total, over 6.5 km of mainline sewer, two sewage pumping stations and a new sewage treatment plant were constructed. The sewage treatment plant included rotating biological contactors, secondary clarifiers, continuous backwash filters, and standby power and UV disinfection facilities. Construction was completed in early 2012.
Several unique components of this project included: constructing the sewage treatment plant at the site of the closed Caradoc Landfill and an operating waste transfer station, requiring management of buried wastes and methane gas monitoring; constructing the pumping stations and sewers within existing developed areas; extensive dewatering required by a very high water table combined with a pervious sandy soil material; and the need to meet an aggressive design and construction schedule driven by tight funding deadlines.