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As work on the first phase of the North End sewage treatment plant nears completion, City of Winnipeg officials provided a look inside the construction of the most expensive project in Winnipeg’s history. 

At an estimated $3.2 billion, the total project cost is more than the city’s entire 2026 budget. On top of the cost, it’s also one of the most complex projects the city has ever undertaken, officials said on Wednesday.

“One of our colleagues in the city drew an analogy between doing multiple organ transplants, while the patient is alive,” Matt Dryburgh, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer, told reporters. 

Every day, millions of litres of raw sewage continue flowing through the site even as crews connect new infrastructure to the old.

The North End facility treats roughly 70 per cent of Winnipeg’s wastewater and all of the solids removed from the city’s sewer system. 

With capacity in the existing plant expected to run out in four to six years, the city is under increasing pressure to finish the project. Construction of the first phase — the new headworks and power supply facility — is expected to wrap up this summer.

The headworks is the first stage of the treatment process, where grit, sand and debris are separated from incoming wastewater before it moves through the rest of the plant. 

Tying that new system into the existing one has required careful planning and around-the-clock work, city officials say.

“We’ve had to undertake that work with divers working nights on a 24/7 basis to fit it in with the plant operations,” said deputy project manager Rob Black.

WATCH | Take a look inside the sewage treatment plant upgrade:

First phase of North End sewage treatment plant upgrade nearing completion

Take a look inside the first phase of the upgrade project at Winnipeg’s North End sewage treatment plant, which is expected to wrap up later this year.

Several storeys below ground, massive pumps lift incoming sewage roughly 22 metres so it can continue flowing by gravity through the treatment process. 

The reinforced concrete structure housing the equipment stretches deep underground, with walls metres thick to contain the flow.

City officials say once the headworks phase is fully operational, it will improve reliability and efficiency at the aging plant, which was first commissioned in 1937.

Construction on the overall upgrade began in 2021. The city expects to move into the second phase, the biosolids removal facility, later this year. 

A third and final phase — a nutrient removal facility  — still requires $1 billion in additional funding to proceed.