Communications infrastructure is set to be improved for the Gerry O’Connor Water Treatment Plant.
At its first meeting of 2025 on Monday, Belleville City Council approved a recommendation to have a durable and high-quality fibre optic line installed, which would be funded from the Water Capital Reserve.
The recommendation calls for an amendment to the 2024 Capital Plan to include a “Water Treatment Plant communications continuity to facilitate the property acquisition, legal transfer, survey, and design and installation.”
In a report from General Manager of Environment Services Perry DeCola, it states that the current communication system is at “end of life” and that in the last three years, there have been 12 weeks of communications downtime that have occurred between the main plant and outside pumping stations.
“A conduit is currently present under the CP Railway line that runs adjacent to the Sidney Street Water Treatment Facility,” DeCola says in his report.
“The city anticipated the ability to be joined to existing Bell infrastructure, using the conduit that was placed in an easement the city believed the communication company had secured along the subject property, however, it was discovered that there was no conduit installed by Bell on the property and no registered easement. These issues facilitated a need to find an alternate process to secure the communications and control of the water systems pumping stations, plants and reservoirs.”
The estimated costs of the communications continuity is $250,000.
