Other Alberta cities planning water pipe upgrades to avoid Calgary-like failures

Utility officials in southern Alberta’s mid-sized cities are planning system upgrades to avoid major water line breaks like one that have forced Calgary to implement water-use restrictions for the second time in two years.

Medicine Hat and Lethbridge both plan to twin critical portions of the water delivery systems in those cities — projects identified several years ago and which stand ready to be built in the coming construction seasons.

A report released Wednesday into the 2024 break of the Bearspaw feeder main in Calgary could have avoided the major disruption with better planning and willingness to spend on building redundancy into its water system.

Neither of the smaller cities waited for the Calgary failure to begin preventing similar problems.

Medicine Hat began looking at potential weak points in its system five years ago and formally submitted specific upgrades into a city capital priorities list just as the first Bearspaw break was occurring two years ago. 

“We went through a ranking process as to which were most critical and that’s how we came up with the Kipling Corridor,” said Pat Bohan, managing director of Medicine Hat’s infrastructure division.

“It’s a pivotal point in our water infrastructure…. We looked at how we might best serve in case of a catastrophic failure.”

The southeast Alberta city of 65,000 will spend $6.3 million this year to twin the Kipling Street feeder main, a central length of pipe that services about one-third of residents in the south end.

A new line will be laid beside an existing line that dates to 1972. The older pipe would have new inspection ports installed, and both used in tandem going forward. That redundancy, allowing any breakage to be isolated and repaired without service disruption, said Bohan.

In Lethbridge, a similar project to twin a reservoir supply line was pencilled into the long-term projects plan in 2022. Final approval is due this fall, and construction likely in 2027.

Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen will request an update on the project this month, considering the new emergency in Calgary, his staff told CBC News.

Citizens in Calgary are again facing water-use restrictions after the Bearspaw feeder main failed last week for the second time in two years.

It is being repaired this week as residents are asked to reduce water consumption.

Mayor Jeromy Farkas said restrictions may return at times through 2028 as a new parallel line is tunnelled and installed in sections along a busy stretch of 16th Avenue.