The Annacis Water Supply Tunnel Project aims to increase the reliability and capacity of the water supply system in New Westminster, British Columbia.

When complete, the tunnel will ensure that more than 2.7 million residents have access to clean drinking water.

The new pipeline has been built under the river, including valve chambers and surface pipelines, and will be one of five new water supply tunnel crossings in the region, built to ensure water supply in the event of an earthquake or natural disaster.

Sarens has been contributing to the construction of this project since 2022 with various heavy lifting tasks and is expected to remain involved until its completion in 2027.

The heavy lifting specialist recently completed the dismantling of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) used for the construction of the new Annacis Water Supply Tunnel in New Westminster, British Columbia, on behalf of its client Traylor Aecon. This tunnel boring machine had been used to construct a 2.3 kilometres long tunnel between Surrey and New Westminster.

The removal of the TBM cutting head, which weighed about 113,400 kg, was carried out at a radius of around 7.5 metres using a Liebherr LTM 1400 mobile crane (main boom only) in a complex environment due to the proximity of traffic.

“A project of this magnitude and social importance always presents significant challenges. In this case, the limited space for manoeuvring and the close proximity of road traffic meant that all our tasks had to be carried out with great precision so as not to cause delays or damage to the surrounding area, but thanks to our experience and the high level of training of our staff, everything was carried out without incident,” said Brett Allen, Project Manager at Sarens.

“We would like to thank Traylor Aecon for the trust they have placed in us since the start of this project in 2022, and we look forward to continuing to work together on the development of new projects of strategic importance to Canadian society.”

Sarens’ engineering team carried out a thorough preliminary study to determine the crane line length, capacity calculations and engineered lift points on the TBM. The LTM 1400 was selected due to its high load-lifting capacity and ease of manoeuvring in confined spaces, especially in an environment such as this project’s proximity to traffic.

This is not Sarens’ first contribution to the TBM’s duties.

At the end of 2024, Sarens lifted various concrete parts as well as the man basket for the tunnel boring machine, with a total weight of 18,145 kg.

Sarens is expected to continue contributing to the development of this project until its completion, scheduled for 2027.