Metro Vancouver, the regional government that operates the Gran Vancouver Water District, has taken another step towards the completion of a significant step in its long -term water safety program, as the excavation climbs to the Annacis water supply tunnel under the Fraser river.
The 2.3 km, 2.6 m in diameter steel, which joins New Westminster and Surrey, is sent with a contract of $ 288 million for the first time awarded to Treylor Aecon General Partnership in early 2022, with a total completion of the project aimed at 2027, according to service ads and contractors.
The Cowi Engineering Consultant, which designed the axes of the wall of the Slurny Paalls, the coating system and the improvement of the soil, said that his work on the project is in its final phase.
“Resilience is at the heart of this project,” said Nedim Alca, director of the Cowi Market, North America. “What makes this milestone so significant is not only the completion of another tunnel, but also the culmination of years of collaborative design, innovation and precision engineering to meet the future water needs in the region.”
Alca added that the tunnel “represents a critical link in the long -term Metro Vancouver Plan to achieve a reliable water supply, even in the most demanding conditions … that will serve quietly to millions of people every day, until the following century”
The transverse section of the Annacis Water Supply Tunnel shows its 2.3 km alignment below the Fraser river, with axes extending from 45 to 60 m underground on both sides. Aecom’s courtesy image
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Map of the alignment of the Annacis Water Supply Tunnel between New Westminster and Surrey, showing the entrance and exit of the tunnel and the exit axes of the Fraser river. Aecom’s courtesy image
The Annacis tunnel is one of the five water supply tunnels, Metro Vancouver, building to replace aged steps and ensure the continuity of the service in the event of a major earthquake. As a whole, the program represents more than $ 2 billion in expected capital investment.
The 2025-2029 financial plan for $ 468.6 million for the second Narrows water supply tunnel and $ 495 million for the Stanley Park tunnel, with additional funding for Lulu-Delta.
A July draft of the Capital Plan 2026-2030 reviewed by Enr Projects The increases in the water rate of the home of 2.5% by 2026, increasing to 5% by 2028 as the construction accelerates.
Even when infrastructure spending is climbed, Metro Vancouver pointed out in its summer water supply 2025 that the demand for per capita water has been constantly decreasing since 2010, a tendency that the utility attributed to densification, the changes in pchcode, the most efficient appliances and public dissemination.
However, global demand has remained constant as population growth compensates for conservation gains. The water demand management strategy in the city of Vancouver 2025 calls for reducing consumption by 15% more by 2030 and moving to the universal measure by 2040.
Future supply projects also advance. In December 2024, Metro Vancouver selected Jacobs as head of programs for the Coquitlam Lake water supply project, which will expand the capacity of the region’s drinking water source with additional treatment and distribution designed to support climate impacts.
The Vancouver 2120 metro water supply report emphasizes the importance of this project, emphasizing: “Once completed, the water supply project of Lake Coquitlam will help meet the growing need of the drinking water region until the next half century.”
Other planned works include the Stanley Park tunnel, replacing a main of the 1930’s and Lulu-Delta’s crossing to support Richmond and Delta.
Regional officials have framed the program of several decades as a push to generate redundancy in a network vulnerable to seismic interruption. A presentation to the Metro Water Committee Vancouver at the end of 2024 presented a “impact mitigation framework” that emphasized the early commitment of the contractor, allowing the coordination and contingency planning to manage the risks of delivery of the project.
This framework was developed with a wide commitment from the interested parties and gained a strong support: “ General positive feedback was received, including the valuation of framework development and support for a consistent, transparent, equitable and fiscal focus on mitigating the impacts on all members, ” according to the report presented to the Water Committee in November 2024.
As the Annacis tunnel approaches the service, the planners say that the investment is intended to run quietly in the background; The division of the public will only notice if a disaster occurs.
