I spent a career replacing water mains, but the big money and staff went into Calgary's new pipes, every year - mostly put in by developers, only the big ones are public projects.
The thing is, they're about 900% overdesigned. Maybe 1900%. They have to be able to fight a fire, and there's no allowance for taller fires, you just hook up pumper trucks to add pressure. So skyscrapers are served by the same 150-200mm pipes that served the houses there before them.
You already have all the infrastructure in SFD neighbourhoods for ten times that population (except maybe electrical, in coming years). Kind of a crime to waste it.
Can you suggest something I can read (as a layperson) to get a better sense of what's involved in water supply to neighbourhoods? Like a paper, or a city of Calgary report, or an introductory civil engineering textbook?
I asked the guy who did it for 30 years, and he wrote me a long letter about his methods. He mentions a "Long Range Plan" for Calgary that we should be able to find, but I wonder if Metro here has their own published long-range. Anyway, here's Hugh's letter, it does clear up a lot:
Thanks Roy, I really appreciate it, and please pass on my thanks to Hugh! (I found myself trying to imagine an upside-down tree, trunk at the top and leaves at the bottom, as I read through his letter.)
In Metro Vancouver, there's a regional district that's responsible for bringing in water from reservoirs (mostly via gravity), and then each municipality is responsible for its own pipes. It'll be the municipal distribution network that's the constraint on infill housing. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything public-facing from the city of Vancouver which talks about the long-term plan for the water distribution network. I'll keep looking, maybe there's a staff report to council that talks about it.
I spent a career replacing water mains, but the big money and staff went into Calgary's new pipes, every year - mostly put in by developers, only the big ones are public projects.
The thing is, they're about 900% overdesigned. Maybe 1900%. They have to be able to fight a fire, and there's no allowance for taller fires, you just hook up pumper trucks to add pressure. So skyscrapers are served by the same 150-200mm pipes that served the houses there before them.
You already have all the infrastructure in SFD neighbourhoods for ten times that population (except maybe electrical, in coming years). Kind of a crime to waste it.
Thanks, that's super-interesting.
Can you suggest something I can read (as a layperson) to get a better sense of what's involved in water supply to neighbourhoods? Like a paper, or a city of Calgary report, or an introductory civil engineering textbook?
I asked the guy who did it for 30 years, and he wrote me a long letter about his methods. He mentions a "Long Range Plan" for Calgary that we should be able to find, but I wonder if Metro here has their own published long-range. Anyway, here's Hugh's letter, it does clear up a lot:
http://brander.ca/density_and_water.html
Thanks Roy, I really appreciate it, and please pass on my thanks to Hugh! (I found myself trying to imagine an upside-down tree, trunk at the top and leaves at the bottom, as I read through his letter.)
In Metro Vancouver, there's a regional district that's responsible for bringing in water from reservoirs (mostly via gravity), and then each municipality is responsible for its own pipes. It'll be the municipal distribution network that's the constraint on infill housing. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything public-facing from the city of Vancouver which talks about the long-term plan for the water distribution network. I'll keep looking, maybe there's a staff report to council that talks about it.
MVRD reports:
https://metrovancouver.org/services/water/Documents/water-supply-outlook-2120.pdf
https://metrovancouver.org/services/water/Documents/gvwd-water-supply-system-annual-update-2022.pdf