| |
|
 |
Stanley Park Stormwater Treatment Wetland
Winner of the Consulting Engineers
of BC's Award of Excellence
Stanley Park is one of the world’s premier urban parks
with a major commuter route, the
Stanley Park Causeway, cutting through its middle. Until recently,
contaminated runoff from the causeway flowed uncontrolled to
adjacent forest and streams where pollutants were dispersed
and impossible to clean up.
Wetland Solution
To eliminate this diffuse contamination of the environment,
Kerr Wood Leidal recommended channelling causeway runoff to
a stormwater treatment wetland. Constructed in Lost Lagoon,
the wetland minimizes disturbance to the park’s natural
environment.
Design Challenges
Given its prominent location at the park’s entrance, the
wetland had to blend convincingly with its natural setting.
Aside from aesthetics, the major technical challenge was building
the wetland on Lost Lagoon’s soft, silty, and weak bottom
sediments. Building directly onto these soils was impossible
because the construction equipment, let alone the structure
itself, would sink. Using ingenuity and meticulous analysis,
the KWL design team devised a complex soil structure that ‘floated’
on the sediments and gradually settled during construction
.
Sustainable Environmental Protection
The Stanley Park Stormwater Treatment Wetland is an innovative
solution that represents a leap forward in environmental protection.
Using natural filtration and treatment processes, the wetland
will aid in improving water quality in the entire ecosystem
that formerly received uncontrolled runoff. Unlike more conventional
solutions that scar the landscape with unsightly structures,
the wetland blends with and enhances the environment through
the creation of new and sustainable wildlife habitat matching
the original natural state of Lost Lagoon. |
|
|
|
 |
|
