The full restoration of water supplies in Calgary will take longer than expected, but exactly how long has not yet been determined.
Work to repair a water main break that caused citywide water restrictions last week can now resume after two workers were injured at the construction site.
On Wednesday at around 9:45 p.m., a contractor was busy attaching the metal collar to the new section of pipe when a chain broke, causing injuries.
Alberta’s Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OHS) has been called in. The provincial authority will determine when work can resume.
“The safety of our employees is a core value of the city,” said Christopher Collier, Health and Safety Officer for the City of Calgary.
“There are safety protocols in place for resuming operations on site and these have been underway since OHS Alberta gave clearance.”
The green light for welding work was given at the construction site at around 10:45 a.m. on Thursday. Work is expected to resume in the afternoon.
On June 5, a rupture occurred in Bearspaw’s southern water main, which is 11 kilometers long and up to two meters wide in places, temporarily leaving hundreds of homes and businesses in the northwest of the city without water.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said repairs to a critical water main break have been halted after two workers were injured Wednesday night. (City of Calgary)
Nature conservation remains critical
In an update Wednesday – a week after the main outage – authorities told Calgary residents to expect continued water restrictions until the middle of next week.
According to Gondek, water consumption has increased again, this time by nine million liters, meaning the city has far exceeded the safe limit.
“I must now ask you to do more to protect water to support those working to restore our safe water supply,” Gondek said Thursday.
The water supply is also lower than in recent days.
“This morning we were at a point where we do not have enough reserves for emergencies,” said Gondek. The emergencies also include water used in hospitals and in firefighting.
Bearspaw’s south water main, which is 11 kilometres long and up to two metres wide in places, suffered a rupture that left hundreds of homes and businesses in the northwest of the city without water. (City of Calgary)
On Wednesday evening, firefighters battled a Level 2 fire in the southwestern Woodbine neighborhood.
Sue Henry, head of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA), said emergency crews needed about 100,000 litres to extinguish the fire.
For comparison, a fire of this size would normally require between 600,000 and 1.5 million liters of water.
“This is an important reminder for us to ensure our first responders have the water they need to respond to public health and safety situations while we make every effort to conserve water,” Henry said.
Mandatory Level 4 water restrictions that went into effect with the water main break last Wednesday are still in effect and the city remains under a fire ban that extends to propane and gas fires.
To date, there have been 1,250 calls for water abuse and 90 calls for fire ban violations. In response, 376 written warnings have been issued. In addition, two tickets have been issued for water violations – both to private contractors. One ticket was related to the fire ban.
Progress in repair
Before the work stoppage Wednesday evening, progress had already been made in repairing the damaged infrastructure. A new section of the main feeder line was lowered into place at the construction site near Home Road and 16th Avenue NW in Montgomery.
The removed pipe was transported to another location for failure analysis. The city said it is reviewing the information collected and will use it for future plans.
An inspection of the remaining main line is underway. More than four kilometers, or 80 percent, have already been completed, says Francois Bouchart, director of capital priorities and investments in the city’s infrastructure services office.
However, it will take some time before the city finds out the exact cause of the pipe burst.
“I would like to stress that it will take some time to determine the exact cause. We have a team of engineers analyzing and interpreting the data,” Bouchart said.
“Our focus remains on the safety of the repair crew and our path to restoring water supply.”
