Fortress Mountain Resort Water Treatment / Sewer System Renovations
2012 – 2020 | Kananaskis, AB
Fortress Mountain Resort was a fully operational ski resort between the 1960’s and 2000’s; however, infrastructure and facilities fell into disrepair following the departure of the previous owner. Fortress Mountain Holdings Ltd. o/a Fortress Mountain Resort (Owner) took control of the property. As a condition of their lease on the land, the Owner required improvements on existing water infrastructure. The Owner retained McElhanney to provide services for development of the Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) permitting. This included a design to add improvements to the water system. Improvements consisted of:
- raw water pump station,
- water treatment plant,
- reservoir,
- raw water and treated water main
In 2015, McElhanney completed the permitting documentation, 60% design documents, an operations plan, and a preliminary emergency response plan to meet AE requirements. However, the duration to receive regulatory approvals was lengthy, leaving limited time to complete a conventional design-bid-build project. The team fast tracked design and construction to meet the impending deadline – which if not met would have put the Resort at risk of losing the land use lease.
An important part of this plan was to select a Construction Contractor that brought the experience and machinery necessary to fit into a very tight construction window. The project required and quick release of a request for proposal to select a Contractor that provided qualifications to meet the unique challenges of space , time and adherence to provide a treatment plant meeting water quality standards and the indicative design aligned to the AEP approval. The fast track project included the following:
- Creation of a competitive bid tender to allow the Owner to employ the services of a qualified Contractor for the supply, installation, and commissioning for all new water infrastructure D
- Detail process specification and include in tender with requirement to meet process guarantee
- Interviews, evaluation and selection of proponent that best met required skill, qualifications, and ability to deliver a product that met the design intent
- Leadership in Project Management and Controls and oversaw quality control and quality assurance to ensure quality of project was maintained under a single program including the contractor
- Preliminary and detailed design for a raw water intake, water piping to the water treatment plant location, and distribution piping
- Transient analysis for the raw and treated water lines
- Collaboration on all design elements including the Process and Instrumentation with specific attention to operability issues
- Electrical controls and instrumentation coordination
- Design of a standby power system
- Submission and liaison with Alberta Environment and Parks for approvals on the infrastructure
- Earthworks, upgrades
- Review of the existing sewage lagoons, design of upgrades and piping
- Inspect treatment plant modules at all stages of fabrication and review all equipment shop drawings
- Water bottling facility be added to the scope at the mid point of the project development
