Calgary asks for patience as water main refilling delayed one day

The City of Calgary is asking water users to continue to show patience and restraint as it seeks to get the Bearspaw Feeder Main fully up and operational by this weekend.

City officials said crews had finished the concrete pouring on its last repair site, but would delay refilling the water line until Tuesday morning as the freshly poured concrete needed an additional day to cure.

The original plan had been to start refilling the line on Monday and slowly ramp up volume coming into the weekend, but Calgary city officials felt an additional 24-hour delay was necessary at this time.

However, Francois Bouchard, the City of Calgary's director of Capital Priorities and Investments, stated this delay should not impact the overall timeline for full system and service restoration by this weekend.

"This should not affect our overall timeline to lift water restrictions this upcoming weekend," he confirmed during Monday's 2 p.m. briefing. "Filling the pipe is our first step in our path to bring the feeder main back into service."

Bouchard said it would take about three days to complete the filling before proceeding to testing and then stabilizing the distribution system. 

"Once all these steps are completed, we will lift water restrictions," he stated.

According to Bouchard, Sunday's Calgary water use was up by about 18 million litres from the day before, and was recorded at 489 million litres.

Bouchard thanked water users for their conservation efforts and stressed the need to hold on for just a little more.

"We are nearing the finish line, but I want to remind you until the feeder main has been reconnected to the rest of the system, it remains very important that we continue to reduce our water use."

Bouchard also confirmed crews had now moved to "days only" shifts, which should reduce noise levels around the repair sites as crews no longer needed to work around the clock to get the work done.

On Sunday, the City announced that 16th Avenue N.W. was now open for traffic. The City confirmed with the exception of a few localized lane closures near 43 Street N.W., traffic was flowing freely through the area again.

Level 4 water restrictions remain in place in Calgary and Airdrie until the Bearspaw Feeder Main is fully operational.