Brockville water tower project moves forward with $2.7M contract

The City of Brockville’s aging water tower will soon be getting a fresh new look, as well as some much-needed repairs, to the tune of $2.7 million.

The rehabilitation was unanimously approved by council at their Tuesday, March 25 meeting.

The tower, which is located on the west side of Perth Street, south of Chaffey Street, was constructed in 1953 and last coated in 2002. It is a welded steel, eight-legged tower with a total height of 40 metres, a bowl diameter of 20, and a capacity of 2,273 cubic metres.

Peter Raabe, the city’s director of engineering and infrastructure services, addressed council and explained that staff received three tender bids for the project earlier this year.

“One [from AVI Construction Inc. out of Markham Ontario] was abnormally lower than the other two and as a result we deemed it as an irregularity, and are not considering it,” Raabe explained.

They went instead with the next lowest, at $2.7 million, bid by Landmark Municipal Services ULC out of Burlington, Ontario.

In 2021, the city applied for and received funding through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) – Green Infrastructure Stream. At the time, the total cost of the project was estimated to be $2,409,000. The city was approved up to $1,766,519, or 73 per cent of funding from the provincial and federal governments, with the city being responsible for the remaining 27 per cent or $642,480.

As a result, project is short $898,204.03. However, included in the work were two smaller projects that were approved in the 2019 and 2023 capital budgets at a combine total of $125,000, reducing the shortfall to $773,204.03. Staff proposed this amount come out of the Water Rate Working Capital Operations Reserve. The balance of this reserve at the end of 2024 was approximately $4.4 million.

Councillor Hobbs inquired about what will happen to the water that’s in there while the work is being completed.

“What you’re going to see first is they will install scaffolding, place a tarp system over top of the tower to collect any dust and paint as it’s being removed,” Raabe explained. “The water that’s in the tower can remain in the tower until they start working on the bowl section of it.”

For most of the process, water will need to be drained.

“Time is of the essence,” Raabe said. “We don’t want the tower to remain offline. It also provides fire protection services. In case of a fire, that’s our reservoir we can draw on.” He explained that to make up for any loss in functionality, the city will rely on pumps at the water treatment plant.

“We are going to be manning the water treatment plant on a 24 hour shift. We’ve made arrangements with staff and we’re going to be able to accomplish that.”

When completed, residents can expect to see the tower painted white, with “Brockville” written in black lettering.

“But we’ve incorporated two or three blue waves,” Raabe noted, as a nod to the current design. “It’ll be a little different, just trying to recognize that we are on the waterfront here.”

Raabe said he expects work to get started fairly soon after council’s approval.