2022 Global Sourcebook: Tallest Dam in Turkey Opens

The geography of the site, in a gorge on the Coruh River in a mountainous area of northeastern Turkey, presentented challenges for the project's design and construction.
Photo courtesy of Limak Construction

The world’s fifth-tallest arch dam, on the Coruh River in a mountainous region of northeastern Turkey, began operating in late November, passing a major milestone for the project.

The Yusufeli hydroelectric dam—the country's tallest dam at 275 meters—can store up to 2.1 billion cu meters of water and will have an installed capacity of 558 MW when fully operational. Limak Construction, part of Turkish conglomerate Turkish Holding, is the EPC contractor on the project for the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Resit Yidiz, Limak director of projects, says significant ancillary work remains including: tailwater channel dredging works, a tunnel spillways plunge pool, concrete for plugging a diversion tunnel, cut-and-cover structures for access tunnels and additional access roads. Construction on the project began in 2013.

Canada

New Wastewater Treatment Plant

PCL Constructors Westcoast is providing construction management services—including developing a new plan, revised budget and schedule—for Metro Vancouver’s new North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant. The tertiary treatment plant, with an original planned completion date of 2020 under former contractor Acciona Wastewater Solutions LP, is now set for a 2024 opening.

AECOM, the owner’s engineer at project onset, is now also design consultant for the plant, which will serve 250,000 residents and businesses in North and West Vancouver. Total project outlay for 2022 is $267 million Canadian dollars, with the overall project estimated to cost about $1 billion CAD. The project is being built to LEED Gold and Envision Gold certification standards, and will also harvest rainwater and use reclaimed water.

Brazil

Asset Management Planning

In December, Arcadis will complete work on a two-year contract to develop a strategic asset management plan, for Embasa, a public water utility in the state of Bahia, Brazil. Arcadis developed a plan and methodology to enable the water utility, responsible for water and sewage systems in 368 cities, to develop plans for capital investments, risk assessments and operational optimization. Arcadis will oversee the next phase of the program, implementation of the asset management roadmap.

Canada

GHD Team Wins Remediation of Ontario Legacy Waste Site

Port Hope Area Initiative

Photo courtesy of CNL

GHD, in partnership with Bird Construction as project lead, in November received a limited notice to proceed for early work on a multi-year task order for the Port Hope Area Initiative for Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. The initiative is the largest active environmental remediation project in Canada and involves the cleanup of more than 1.2 million cu meters of legacy low-level radioactive waste from more than 1,000 industrial, institutional and residential properties in Port Hope and Clarington, Ontario. As the environmental consultant, GHD will provide site characterization and design for remediation and restoration.

Pam is ENR’s senior editor for government coverage, focusing on federal environmental and labor issues as they relate to the construction industry. She has a degree in journalism and an M.A. in writing fiction, and has worked previously as both an editor at ENR (2007-2016) and as a freelancer for a variety of publications and clients. One of her favorite gigs involved writing about stars, black holes and the mysteries of the universe for NASA.

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