The City of Calgary announced on Thursday reinforcement work on the Bearspaw South Feeder Main has been completed a week earlier than scheduled and water restrictions are lifted effective immediately. The city advises Calgary and area residents can return to normal water usage rates.
“Over the past three and a half weeks, Calgarians and our regional neighbours in Airdrie, Chestermere, Strathmore and Tsuut’ina Nation took meaningful actions to reduce their daily water use,” says Michael Thompson, general manager of infrastructure services with the City of Calgary.
“This helped us operate the Glenmore water treatment plant at increased capacity and keep our underground storage tanks full, so we had enough water available to respond to emergencies like additional water main breaks and fires.”
Thompson says crews completed major work to the Bearspaw South Feeder Main, including reinforcement of the nine highest risk segments, concrete work, backfilling and paving to restore work areas, replacing valves that were not fully operational and refilling, testing and returning the pipe to service in a controlled way.
“Today, our system can once again move water from the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant to your taps,” he said, adding traffic detours along 16 Ave. NW and Sarcee Tr. will be removed by the weekend.
In addition, city recreation facilities will return to normal operations, and hot tubs and kiddie pools are being refilled and will reopen as soon as they’re ready and safe to use.
“We have reached a major milestone, but the pipe is still in poor condition and at risk of another issue or break until the new pipe is operational in December,” says Thompson. “We are not planning to reintroduce water restrictions until fall, when we’ll shut this pipe down again to connect the new pipe. But if another issue happens before then, we may need to bring back water restrictions sooner.”
‘We encourage Calgarians to stay informed and prepared by watching local news, following the city’s social media channels, downloading the Alberta Emergency Alert app and visiting calgary.ca for timely updates.”
