The City of Vancouver retained Sperling Hansen Associates to prepare a comprehensive Design and Operations Plan for the Phase 3 operational area. The work included:

• Panning of landfill development on a lift by lift basis with detailed design of landfill gas collection & leachate management infrastructure to be installed in each lift.
• Detailed direction of filling, optimal locations of access routes for each lift, lift capacity & waste to cover ratio.
• Prepare Phase 3 for future closure so that all required ditching & toe berms would be constructed out of refuse in advance rather than from costly fill material after landfilling operations completed.
• Allow progressive closure and landfill gas collection to be implemented at a faster rate the Phase 3 operational area was divided into two, Phase 3 West and Phase 3 East.
• SHA staff worked very closely with the City of Vancouver front line supervisors to ensure that their extensive on-site experience was incorporated into the plan.