High River Lift Station Upgrades

2016-2018 | High River, AB

McElhanney led the team to design the upgrade of the main lift station in High River,  through which all of the town’s wastewater flowed. The budget-friendly re-design included a much-needed new bypass around the lift station for emergency or other temporary use. Through intricate design, the team managed to tie it in with existing, unused infrastructure to save the Town of High River added expense. The design also included a customized mechanical screen within the lift station to automate the extraction of unwanted solids from the wastewater.

The upgrade mitigates against the likelihood of the Town facing same dire situation they did in 2013 when the lift station flooded and the community had to be evacuated. Without this upgrade, the possibility of a straight discharge of waste to the environment or back-up into residences was much higher should the lift station experience a critical failure. Instead, today, if the lift station should fail, one operator can simply activate the bypass within minutes of arriving at the lift station and it will keep the waste flowing to the treatment lagoons.