What is the Broadway Subway Project doing at Cambie Street?
Our crews are relocating the Cambie Combined Sewer to make way for the future Broadway-City Hall Station additions. Station additions include elevators, escalators and stairs. These will connect the outbound platform of the Canada Line to the future Millennium Line Extension. Construction of these station additions will take place under Cambie where the sewer is currently located. This Station upgrade will create a seamless, underground connection for passengers. Travelers will no longer need to exit the fair-paid zone, reducing their travel times.
The sewer is “combined” because it carries both sewage and water runoff from five Vancouver neighbourhoods to wastewater treatment facilities. As part of the city’s critical infrastructure, crews are unable to shut down the pipe. Instead, the team must create a bypass system to move flows from the section being replaced and connect a new pipe. Once the tie-in is complete, the bypass system is removed, and the new section is ready for action!
Relocating the Cambie Combined Sewer includes updating the pipe diameter from 1.8 metres to 2.4 metres. The Broadway Subway Project team has opted to increase pipe diameter to better prepare the system for population growth and increased heavy rainfall due to climate change. To give you a sense of the increase in the pipe size, a person would now be able to stand up in the pipe without issue!
