More water woes for Winnipeggers

WINNIPEG – At least two more water mains burst Friday, adding more work to hard pressed city crews.

The breaks happened on St. Matthews Avenue near Telfer Street and on Edmonton Street close to Ellice Avenue.

“They have the water turned off,” said Chris Barkley who lives in an apartment on Edmonton. “So as of right now, there’s no water in the building at all.”

Documents obtained by Global News on Thursday show that the city has dealt with 763 water main breaks since January 2013. Some areas have also suffered several ruptures in one year. Laxdal Road between Eldridge Avenue and Ridgewood Avenue is among them, having experienced 10 breaks so far.

“You’d wake up in the morning and the street would be flooded,” said Harvey Waterman who lives on Laxdal.

Waterman has lived on the Charleswood street for more than 40 years. He says last month was the worst he’s ever seen.

“They had to shut the water off to repair the line and it just kept breaking on them,” said Waterman. “They’d fix one place and a day later, it would break further down the road.”

Dunrobin Avenue between Roch Street and Brazier Street is tied with Laxdal Road for the most amount of water main breaks.

“They’d fix it, the trucks would drive off and the next thing you know, it’s leaking again,” said Dunrobin Avenue resident, Tom Lurvey.

But water main breaks aren’t the only pain the city is currently facing.

The list of homes waiting to have frozen pipes thawed has grown and is now up to 375.

“This is a major, major inconvenience,” said Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz. “I use that word lightly. It’s more than that for all these people on the waiting list.”

The city says all three electric current machines to heat pipes have been in full use. Two more are expected to arrive in four weeks to help keep up with the demand. Crews are working 24 hours a day, four days a week and 15 hours the other three days to thaw the frozen city.