Tunnel excavation is now complete at the Second Narrows Water Supply Tunnel, an important infrastructure project that will make the region’s drinking water system more earthquake resilient and help meet growing demand for safe, high-quality drinking water.
With an internal diameter of 5.8 metres, the Second Narrows Water Supply Tunnel is one of the largest tunnels ever built by Metro Vancouver. The 1.1-kilometre-long tunnel was excavated with the first slurry tunnel boring machine to be used in Canada, and the work was being done up to 100 metres underground. Now that the tunnel is complete, three steel water mains will be installed and connected to the existing water system with new valve chambers.
Metro Vancouver supplies nearly 2.7 million people with clean, safe, high-quality drinking water each day. This project is one of several new regional water supply tunnel projects that are being constructed to meet current seismic standards and increase supply capacity.
