MONTREAL –The $16 million project that started one year ago was almost complete and Pins Avenue was about to re-open to traffic when City of Montreal workers discovered a leak in the new water main pipe.
The multi-million dollar project to replace the century-old water main connected to the McTavish reservoir is now on hold, as the city waits for a contractor to dig up the street again and locate the leak.
All three phases of the construction project were supposed to be finished by August 2013.
The repair work was on schedule until the leak was discovered.
Workers had repaved the road and were flushing out the water main pipes when they noticed the leak.
After trying to find the problem with underground cameras, the last resort is excavation along the 250 metre-stretch on Pins Avenue between Peel and Aylmer streets.
“It is a huge water main, it is 48 inches (in diameter) and it’s a small leak so we have to locate it,” said city spokesperson Jacques-Alain Lavallée.
The east-bound lane on Pins Avenue has been closed to traffic since the spring and it will likely remain that way for a while longer.
It’s a nightmare for drivers, and especially for ambulance access at the MUHC’s Royal Victoria Hospital.
“It’s not ideal clearly it’s challenging, it adds a lot of stress to both patients and staff to have to fight to get into the hospital,” said Ian Popple, communications coordinator at the MUHC, who adds patients should give themselves an extra 30 to 60 minutes to get to appointments.
Both the MUHC and the city are asking people to be patient.
“This is a very unusual situation, this is not something that happens,” said Lavallée, who insisted taxpayers won’t have pay a penny more than the $16 million bill.
The contractor will apparently cover the extra costs to locate the leak and repair the water main.
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