City of Calgary hosts info session ahead of feeder-main work, new water restrictions

City officials held an information session Saturday for residents living near upcoming construction tied to the Bearspaw South feeder main, as Calgary prepares to impose new water restrictions starting Monday.

The session, held at Terrace Road School in the northwest community of Montgomery, was aimed at updating Calgarians about planned repair work on the critical pipeline, along with the traffic disruptions and construction activity expected over the coming weeks.

The city says the aging feeder main, which is a key piece of Calgary’s drinking water system, will be temporarily shut down while crews reinforce some of the most vulnerable sections of pipe.

“Starting March 9, we will be doing nine repairs in total, basically across two locations,” said Melanie Gray, a senior project engineer with the City of Calgary’s utilities delivery division.

“So there’s six repair sites at Sarcee Trail and 16th Avenue (N.W.), and then we have three repair sites at the Point McKay Park location, which is currently the existing construction area.”

The work is expected to take roughly three weeks.

“For the first few days, it’s a lot of excavating material, getting down to the existing pipe,” Gray said.

“And then we will do a quick pipe inspection, and then most of the work will start after that.”

Once exposed, crews will install reinforcing materials around the pipe before pouring concrete, which must cure for about a week before the line can be put back into service.

During that period, the Glenmore water treatment plant will be responsible for supplying most of the city’s water.

Outdoor water use will be prohibited during the shutdown.

The city is encouraging people to reduce indoor consumption by only running full loads in dishwashers and washing machines, and fixing leaks and tackling water-heavy household tasks ahead of the restrictions.

Officials say the repairs are necessary after recent signs of stress on the feeder main.

“A few weeks ago, we did have some wire breaks on a couple of our pipe segments,” Gray said.

“So those are the ones that we are going in to repair now.”

The reinforcement work is intended as a temporary measure until a new feeder main currently under construction is ready to take over service later this year.

Gray said the city accelerated construction timelines to speed up the project.

“The project is in design and ready for construction. We were originally anticipating two years of construction with basically one crew,” she said.

“But by fast-tracking this, sourcing it to one contractor where we have three crews on-site, that’s why we’re able to get this done in such a short amount of time.”

The city says residents should expect around-the-clock construction activity, traffic detours and lane closures near the work sites, particularly around 16th Avenue and Sarcee Trail N.W.

Crews will also be working in areas including Bowness, Montgomery, Parkdale and Shouldice Park to drain the feeder main ahead of the repairs, which may result in large volumes of water being released into the Bow River.

The city says future information sessions will be planned both online and in person to keep residents informed about the work and its impacts.