Metro Vancouver awards $17-million Coquitlam Lake project contract

The engineering company CIMA+ has agreed to a five-year, $17-million contract to manage a major Coquitlam water supply expansion, Metro Vancouver confirmed.

The company is overseeing the Coquitlam Main No. 4 Project, which involves doubling the amount of water drawn from Coquitlam Lake.

The lake currently supplies about 370 million litres of water per day – about one-third of the drinking water needed by the region’s 2.7 million residents, according to Metro Vancouver.

The expansion, which is set to be complete in the late 2030s, involves a new water intake, a water supply tunnel, and water treatment facilities.

The current intake is in a relatively shallow section of the lake. Putting the new, larger intake deeper should allow for more water to be pumped out and for that water to be of better quality, according to Metro Vancouver.

The project is currently in the planning phase.

The expansion is intended to make the water supply more resilient in the midst of climate change as well as serving the region’s growing population.

In 2020, CIMA+ was ordered to pay a $3.2 million as part of a settlement for bid rigging on municipal infrastructure contracts. The company had also reimbursed overpayments.

Asked if Metro Vancouver had any hesitation about hiring CIMA+, Metro Vancouver major projects director Bob Cheng noted the company had to go through a: “rigorous two-phase process.”

After short-listing companies that demonstrated the ability to do the work, Metro Vancouver surveyed the competing work plans and fee schedules.

“Through this process, it was determined that CIMA+ demonstrated its capability to undertake the work, and the proposal submitted was lowest cost and provided the best value to Metro Vancouver,” Cheng stated in an email to the Dispatch.

Coquitlam gets more than 20 million cubic metres of water from Metro Vancouver annually. Slightly more than half of water utility fees to go Metro Vancouver for buying water and running the regional supply system.