ADI Will Manage Relocation of Coke Ovens Brook

Sydney Tar Ponds Agency press release
Sydney Tar Ponds Agency
Thurs., Sept. 21, 2004

ADI Limited has won a contract to design and manage the re- routing of Coke Ovens Brook, the first step in cleaning up the Coke Ovens property.

The Fredericton-based engineering firm, which has maintained offices in Sydney since 1981, will complete detailed engineering plans for the job, prepare tender packages for contracting firms, and manage the construction project.

Barring unforeseen regulatory difficulties, construction will begin in the summer of 2005.

In its current alignment, Coke Ovens Brook picks up contaminated groundwater as it meanders through some of the most heavily polluted parts of the Coke Ovens property.

Last summer, an engineering report by Dillon Consulting Ltd. recommended re-routing the brook along two branches that would flow through less contaminated areas. Moving the brook will also permit more thorough cleanup of the stream bed, where contaminants accumulated during a century of coke production.

ADI will use a total of 21 engineering and support staff on the project, 15 of them based in Sydney. The engineering design and management contract is worth $578,000.

"After many years of study and talk," said Richard Morykot, the Sydney Tar Ponds Agency engineer in charge of the project, "this is the first concrete step in cleaning up contamination on the Coke Ovens." The newly realigned brook will have two branches:

• The south branch will start at the outflow from the MAID Pond, behind the Schwartz building on Vulcan Avenue. It will run along the southern boundary of the Coke Ovens site, parallel to Vulcan Avenue, through an area known as Mullin's Bank. Near the western boundary of the site, the brook will merge with Cagney Brook and run north, parallel to Victoria Road, and then follow the existing channel under the Victoria Road overpass.
• The north branch will run along the Whitney Pier side of the Sydney Coal Railway track and the SPAR road, picking up flows from several smaller brooks along the way. It will cross under the tracks and the Spar Road at a point just east of Lingan Road, and follow the rail spur through the Coke Ovens site to join the south branch at the Victoria Road overpass.

Part of the relocated south branch will be piped underground, and portions of both branches will be lined with synthetic material or clay to prevent recontamination.

Engineering work continues on three other projects that have been advanced to prevent environmental damage while the cleanup undergoes mandatory environmental assessment. The projects include:

• the construction of a coffer dam at Battery Point,
• the cleanup of the cooling pond at the southwest corner of the Sysco property, and
• the relocation of the Victoria Road water main.