Nanaimo residents can expect to see more roads torn up in the coming years as the city continues renewing and upgrading water and sewer systems, while resurfacing and upgrading roads at the same time.
At a special finance meeting Wednesday, Nov. 27, Poul Rosen, city director of engineering, laid out the scope and costs of replacing aging water mains and sewer lines and the impacts on neighbourhoods and major commuter routes.
Starting in summer 2025, the Millstone trunk central project will upgrade sewage lines from East Wellington Road to Boxwood Road. Rosen said the city is current going through an Agricultural Land Reserve process to get clearance to carry out the work. Construction budget is $3.3 million.
The Hammond Bay area utilities project is another sewer upgrade that will also include intersection and road improvements on Hammond Bay Road in 2025. Construction budget is $4.5 million.
“It’s a pretty substantial project,” Rosen said. “We’re not able to make significant improvements to the active transportation network through here for budgetary reasons, but there will be some minor enhancements in a few localized areas.”
Third and Fitzwilliam streets will also be torn up between Howard Avenue and Pine Street in 2025 because of issues with sewer lines and construction methods used to created the Third Street connector across the Cat Stream in the late 1990s.
“This project is largely driven by some issues with the sanitary sewer. Right near the Cat Stream there, there’s some very poor soils,” Rosen said. “This whole area is underlain by all these steel piles along with special geofabrics and stuff like that. We’re having some issues between the sanitary sewer and this piling network that we have to remediate.”
Road network enhancements are included in the project’s $6.4-million budget.
On Norwell Drive, $9.4 million in infrastructure renewal, including pavement, signals and utilities in the Country Club area is in the plans, though construction won’t start for at least a year or two.
“As part of the provincial legislation change … this transit exchange has been designated as a transit-oriented area,” Rosen said. “We’ve got a number of utilities and the road in the area in need of renewal and so we’re in the process of developing concept plans, doing some [public] engagement and so on. Ultimately this is quite a costly project.”
Because of traffic volume increases since Boxwood and Northfield roads were connected, East Wellington Road between Hansen Road and the Nanaimo Parkway will be rebuilt in 2026, work that will include installation of a traffic signal at Madsen Road and a sidewalk. Rosen noted the city also considers East Wellington Road as a key cycling connector off Bowen Road. Budget is $3 million.
Repaving Bowen Road between Labieux and Rosstown roads is budgeted at $1.3 million and scheduled for 2026. Coun. Ben Geselbracht asked if the project would include extending the multi-use bike lanes that currently terminate at Labieux Road, and Rosen replied that would require $1 million not allocated for the project.
“We don’t have a design for it right now … My understanding is there is the width there. We just need the funding to be able to implement that,” Rosen said.
Geselbracht said there should be provision for a bike lane.
“For anybody that bikes along Bowen Road, it sucks, as soon as you get to that spot there, it’s like you’re putting your life at risk,” Geselbracht said. “It’s probably best to just go up on the sidewalk and navigate through the pedestrians.”
Dale Lindsay, city chief administrative officer, said it’s also possible to put a multi-use bi-directional path on the Bowen Road frontage of Beban Park, since the city owns the land.
Coun. Erin Hemmens said there is “redundancy” with Labieux Road, which she recommended as an option for cyclists.
“I would really like to see cyclists directed toward the infrastructure that we do have … and [Labieux] is an OK detour … I think there’s a workaround, right now, where we don’t necessarily spend $1 million,” she said.
Nanaimo is looking at a $15.7 million tab for utilities and infrastructure renewal on Hammond Bay Road as part of the Regional District of Nanaimo’s forcemain project, scheduled for 2026-27. The pipe carries water from a pump station at Departure Bay Beach up Hammond Bay Road close to the RDN's Greater Nanaimo Pollution Control Centre.
“Because it’s such a large pipe it’s going to require a lot of invasive construction,” Rosen said. “This isn’t just a small little water main replacement with a one-and-a-half-metre-deep trench.”
He said the project is a major undertaking that will be disruptive to the neighbourhood and conflict with water, storm and sanitary systems.
“This big pipe they’re putting in, other stuff has to get out of the way, so there’s going to be a lot of conflict, so we have a lot of opportunities for renewal at that point,” he said.
Other major projects to be carried out before 2030 include the Towers Reservoir upgrade at $5.1 million to upgrade water reservoirs near College Drive in 2028-29.
The north-end water supply project is anticipated to be constructed from 2030-33 at a cost of $44.5 million plus $5 million in design work, to build a secondary dedicated water supply main and a new reservoir and pump station.
