Crews continue to work to repair a major water main break and five other weak spots in Calgary on June 22, 2024.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
The City of Calgary says it’s expanding the repair work on a pipeline that is already forcing residents to once again cut back on their water use.
Michael Thompson, the city’s general manager for infrastructure services, says additional but less-serious issues have shown up on the line and they will be fixed at the same time as the major problems.
Starting in less than two weeks, residents in Calgary and surrounding communities will be asked to once again reduce indoor water use and will be banned from outdoor watering as work resumes on the troubled northside water main.
The water main broke in early June, forcing residents to cut their water use for weeks while it was repaired.
Earlier this month, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek announced that more tests revealed other urgent trouble spots that need to be fixed before the winter freeze-up.
Calgarians will begin rationing water again as of Aug. 26 for about a month while those repairs are completed.
The main repair work on the pipe will be reinforcing concrete in vulnerable spots.
Thompson told reporters Thursday that since the less-serious fixes, such as reinforcing wire snaps, are near the major ones, “we are taking care of all of them at the same time.”
Thompson said the city has been using acoustic monitoring devices, installed in March or April, to monitor wire breaks along the feeder main. He said that system is being upgraded to a fibre optic system starting next week.
“The new system will include fibre optic cable installed inside the pipe. This will accurately identify the location of a wire snap and allow us to monitor the pipe’s health more closely,” he said.