Water main breaks plague Winnipeg

WINNIPEG – A number of Winnipeg streets were slushy messes Thursday morning after another series of bad water main breaks.

Water entered St. Boniface Hospital after a water main broke on Tache Avenue.

Winnipeg Regional Health Authority spokeswoman Bronwyn Penner-Holigroski said water entered the staff area in the hospital basement. It was being cleaned up quickly and wasn’t affecting patient care, she said.

The hospital closed underground tunnels, forcing people outside when moving between buildings.

“We can’t get through the tunnels, so that’s why we’re doing a coffee run for everyone else,” said nurse Ashley Lacombe.

Another break closed Selkirk Avenue from Main Street to Charles Street at about 5:30 a.m. It remained closed through the morning rush hour.

A third major water main break affected traffic in both directions on Salter Street at Templeton Avenue.

And a fourth broke on Mayfair Avenue, where crews worked throughout the morning to get the water turned back on to the surrounding apartment buildings.

“My neighbour was the one that woke me up and said ‘Do you have water?’ and I said ‘No, there’s no water,’ ” said Rochelle Gagnon, who lives on Mayfair.

The four water main breaks on Thursday alone are just a drop in the bucket.

So far this winter from December to February, Winnipeg has experienced 196 water main breaks, city officials said.

That’s up from the same period last winter, when there were 175 breaks, and substantially higher than the five year average of 134 water main breaks.

Some neighbourhoods have been plagued by multiple water main breaks, like Laxdal Road between Eldridge and Ridgewood, where crews fixed 10 water main breaks between January 2013 and January 2014.

Global News has also obtained a full list of water main break locations since the beginning of January 2014.

Click here to download City of Winnipeg numbers on water main repairs

“We expect water main breaks — we know we have some seriously old infrastructure, especially in our pipes — but we never expect to have this quantity of breaks,” said Mayor Sam Katz.

With pipes freezing as well, Katz said the city has started planning to make repairs this spring and invest more money in changing some water mains quicker than originally scheduled.

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