The West Edmonton Sanitary Sewer (WESS) is a system of sewer trunks that provide sanitary services to the west Edmonton area. Stage W13 is a $14.3 million project, 1.2 km long and 2.3 m in diameter, that has been added to the initially-proposed W2–W12 stages, and will allow for future growth in the Grange and Lewis Farms areas in west Edmonton without the need for storage tanks by removing the constraints along 151 St. between 93 Ave. and 99 Ave. W13 will also help reduce the risk of basement flooding upstream and combined sewer overflow into the North Saskatchewan River.

SMA Consulting assisted the City of Edmonton’s Drainage department on the W13 project by providing innovative decision support, including risk analysis and value engineering workshops, constructability reviews, construction simulation, and 3D modeling. These services helped identify how the trunk should be built, how the team should connect to the existing sewer, and what kind of risks might be involved in the project.

Construction of W13 allows for further growth in the Grange and Lewis farms neighbourhoods in west Edmonton. The tunnel eliminates the need for storage tanks by removing constraints along 151 St. between 93 Ave and 99 Ave.

W13 will also help reduce the risk of basement flooding upstream and combined sewer overflow in the North Saskatchewan River, providing protection to the delicate river valley environment.

We helped identify how the trunk should be built, how the team should connect to the existing sewer, and what kinds of risks might be involved in the project. We assisted with daily, weekly, and monthly project controls, which included a vast amount of data collection, progress reports and EVA updates.

SMA’s authoritative EVA analysis identified that productivity was not meeting optimal targets, and predicted cost and schedule overruns in mid-2012. Using the method productivity delay model (MPDM), SMA recorded and categorized delays. We were then able to identify key problem areas and propose strategic solutions. Implementation of these results led to a tripling of project productivity. Thanks to this increase in productivity, cost performance was dramatically improved.