The suburban area around the Canadian capital of Ottawa has been growing significantly over the last few years. This means that the area’s water supply infrastructure has to grow along, in order to ensure flawless distribution to the inhabitants. For this purpose, Brownline has surveyed a crossing under Rideau River in October 2020 for a new water main installment in the community of Manotick.
The water main installment is being completed to connect the City of Ottawa’s drinking water system from Riverside South on the (East) side of the Rideau River to the village of Manotick and Barrhaven (South). The new 610 mm water main will provide additional capacity as well as redundancy to the existing water main infrastructure. The project’s total scope consists of installing over 2.4 kilometers of 610 mm water main with 2 HDD crossings of the Rideau River. This section of the Rideau River is part of the Rideau Canal System, an active navigable waterway and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The trajectory for this drill was 318 meters in length and took place under challenging drilling conditions. Approximately 200 meter of the trajectory is under the Rideau River Canal System with just over 35 meter of NPS 48” surface casing installed on the West side (Entry) of the river. The waterway itself, as well as the vulnerability of the surrounding area made surface access to the job site nearly impossible.
Working with the Drillguide Gyro Steering Tool combined with the GPS Track, there was no need for surface coils, and minimal impact was put on the surrounding residences and parks. The pilot drill was completed successfully and the remainder of the project can be executed swiftly.