'Catastrophic' Nanaimo water main failure 2 years ago leads to multimillion-dollar replacement line

College Drive Reservoir, where new line will be hooked up, is shown. (CTV)

On Friday, April 3, 2020, a water main break at the intersection of Bowen Road and Dufferin Crescent in Nanaimo had the potential for severe consequences.

“It is one of our major supply lines,” said Bill Sims, general manager of engineering and public works for the City of Nanaimo.

“It serves about two-thirds of the city and it had a catastrophic failure.”

Fortunately, there was minimal damage to roads and no one was injured, and the line was repaired fairly quickly.

“We recognized that it was an absolutely unacceptable risk,” added Sims. “We mobilized quickly to create a project that mitigates that risk.”

Fast forward to Wednesday, the Mid-Town Water Supply Project is getting underway and the city is preparing to duplicate and repeat the Bowen Road water main so that it can be decommissioned.

There will be two new lines installed side by side along the Nanaimo Parkway from the East Wellington overpass, going south and connecting to one of the city’s reservoirs on College Drive.

“Installing two mains to parallel the single Bowen Road main will allow us to work on one, or (when) one has a problem we can switch to the other one,” said Sims.

A secondary water main will also be installed from the Bowen Road and Pryde Avenue intersection to the north end of Labieux Road.

The $45-million overall budget for the project was presented to council recently.

“When we talk about tens of millions of dollars for this one project, it’s in the context of just our water supply system alone being worth a billion dollars,” said Sims.

The project will also be spread out over a number of annual city budgets to mitigate the cost.

Steel water pipelines have been ordered and will take roughly six to eight months to arrive. Contracts have also been awarded to a contractor and engineering team.

Trees have also been felled along the Nanaimo Parkway where the water line will be before bird-nesting season.

Construction is expected to start this fall and take approximately two-and-a-half years.

More information about the Mid-Town Water Supply Project can be found here.