By Lynda Myer
In order to advancing Toronto’s largest basement flooding prevention project ever, the TBM is due to soon be commissioned.
Collecting, storing and moving stormwater from the Fairbank-Silverthorn area of the city to Black Creek, the Fairbank Silverthorn Storm Trunk Sewer System project is a new storm sewer that will help decreasing the risk of basement flooding. The used method in this city’s Basement Flooding Protection Program for reducing the risk of flooding is improving the sewer system and overland drainage routes.
Commencing from a 40m-deep shaft in Fairbank Memorial Park, the 270-tonne TBM will construct a 3km-long, 4.5m-diameter storm sewer.
The project consists of a 3km storm sewer from Fairbank Memorial Park in the east to Black Creek in the west. Following its completion, the new sewer will hold and store stormwater and release it gradually into Black Creek at a controlled rate. Additionally, linking to local catch basins to carry rainwater to this large new storm sewer, a series of smaller storm sewers, totaling 17km, is also going to be constructed. Moreover, in order to controlling rainwater flow in catch basins to reduce the risk of basement flooding and combined sewer overflows, the project includes installing more than 320 devices.
The advantages of this new system will be helping mitigate basement flooding and sewer back-ups for more than 12,500 people living in 4,645 homes as well as decreasing 40 million liters of annual combined sewer overflows into Black Creek and other local waterways, once completed.
While the start date of this project was 2021, it is slated be completed in 2026. Although the total cost is around C$380m (US$283.6m), C$73.2m (US$54.6m) received from the Canadian Government’s Disaster Mitigation and Adaption Fund.
According to deputy mayor Jennifer McKelvie: “I am pleased to mark this important milestone in the Fairbank Silverthorn Storm Trunk Sewer System project that will help protect thousands of basements from flooding. This is particularly important as we see the increased frequency of impactful storms that can damage people’s homes and cherished belongings. The basement flooding prevention project will also help reduce combined sewer overflows from being released into local waterways.”
