Regard en arrière sur les travaux d’amélioration de la station de traitement des eaux usées du secteur nord accomplis en 2025

It was a busy 2025 at the North End Wastewater Treatment Plant (also known as the North End Water Pollution Control Centre or NEWPCC).

NEWPCC treats an average of about 195 megalitres of wastewater per day. One megalitre equals one million litres. It also processes all of Winnipeg’s sludge - aka the solid parts of wastewater.

Throughout the year, the plant kept running while upgrade work continued. A lot of the construction work at the NEWPCC site was focused on the Headworks Facilities.

Over the past year, an average of 175 people worked on the Headworks site every weekday. Since the Headworks project started, we have:

• Poured approximately 30,000 cubic metres of concrete, which is roughly two times the volume of concrete used to build the Canada Life Centre
• Used 5.2 million kilograms of steel (a combination of rebar and structural steel), which is the weight of more than 850 adult elephants
• Installed 105,000 metres of electrical cable, which could connect Winnipeg to Portage La Prairie if it was stretched end to end

All these people and resources helped us construct new tunnels, chambers, and buildings like the Main Control Building and Raw Sewage Pumping Station. The new Headworks Facilities will receive wastewater from the existing sewer system and replace the existing headworks.

Headworks Facilities’ support projects also moved forward. We completed a successful redesign of our Primary Clarification Upgrade. Construction began on this in June. We also began a UV light upgrade project this past fall, which will reduce the amount of electricity the UV treatment system uses by 75 percent.

Biosolids Facilities

We have more than 250 people working on the design of the Biosolids Facilities and we haven’t even started the main construction yet. We are using a progressive design-build model to deliver this project. This model allows us to focus on what Winnipeg needs for biosolids treatment while getting good value for our money. It also allows us to adapt and refine the design to help us stay within our budget.  

We also started some very early-stage work at the Biosolids site. Early-stage work includes the installation of water and sewer pipes connecting the building to the existing infrastructure. We expect to start installing piles in the new year, with facility construction beginning in the fall.

Nutrient Removal Facilities

While we were able to secure new Provincial and Federal funding for the Biosolids Facilities last year, we are still trying to reach funding agreements for the Nutrient Removal Facilities project.

We can’t delay starting preliminary work on it though. We’ve completed the first step of the Request for Proposals (RFP) process. This is the process where companies submit information to demonstrate that they can do the work. We were able to shortlist three qualified companies to proceed to the next step of the RFP process.

Once we complete the RFP process, we expect to start design and construction planning later this year. Full construction will then start in 2028.

Our City, Our Podcast

Engineers Linda McCusker and Lana Obach are on the team leading the upgrades at the North End Wastewater Treatment Plant. They joined Our City, Our Podcast to discuss why this massive project is critical for Winnipeg . This episode was released in February 2026.