Calgary mayor calls for one-year timeline to complete Bearpaw water main twinning

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas outlined the next steps for repairing the city’s Bearpaw water system after water restrictions were lifted on Friday.

“Our job right here in this moment is not to celebrate the patch,” Farkas said. “Our job is to deliver the replacement faster than anyone thinks possible.”

Ward and Burke Microtunnelling Ltd. and Graham Construction have already been tapped by the city to undertake the work. Speaking to reporters, Farkas said a project of this scale typically takes four years, but he wants it completed in one.

Retired civil engineer Roy Brander spent 30 years working for the City of Calgary in it’s water management department. He told Global News Farkas has set out an ambitious timeline.

“We often marvel at how quickly China sometimes builds a hospital in a week,” Brander said. “These things are all possible for us too, you just have to be willing to do the extra work at greater expense.”

According to the City of Calgary website, the Bearspaw South Feeder Main Improvements Project will be completed in two phases. The first phase will require micro-tunneling from the Shaganappi Pump Station to 73 Street NW on the west side of the Bow River. Phase two will continue that work and move along 33 Avenue to 89 Street NW with the potential of an extension to the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant.

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The plan also calls for crews to excavate portions of the existing feeder main and reinforce sections with concrete, a plan Brander says isn’t ideal.

“I’ve never heard of that being done as a solution before, but I’m sure they have data from other cities where it has happened,” Brander said. “But just putting a whole bunch of concrete on the outside of the main to hold it together is a real Hail Mary pass.”

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Hail Mary passes might be all that’s left, as Mayor Farkas has said numerous times the pipe itself is “terminally ill.” The city can’t guarantee the feeder main won’t rupture again, so it has put in flood mitigation measures at multiple spots along the route, including at Point McKay, Montgomery, and along 33 Ave in Bowness.

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The twinning of the feeder main and concrete patch jobs will only need to hold until another significant redundancy project is completed.

“This parallel main will become a lot less important the day they place this major second project that will take water through a whole different route up to the north,” Brander said. “So, this quick secondary main doesn’t have to last 100-years.”