With cold winter temperatures just getting started, Global News reached out to the City of Lethbridge to find out how infrastructure maintenance is going during the coldest months of the year.
Last year, Lethbridge experienced one of the coldest winters in recent memory. The city said that last February alone, Lethbridge experienced as many water main breaks as it did in all of 2018.
“The cold weather was a contributing factor to the high number of water main breaks,” said Leanne Lammertsen, the city’s water and wastewater operations manager.
“The frost was deep, the water coming from the river was cold — all these things just added up.”
Lammertsen said a majority of the water main breaks happen with cast iron pipes, which currently make up about 10 per cent of the city’s water mains.
The city is working towards reducing that number until all cast iron water pipes have been replaced.
However, she added that Lethbridge is getting into the time of year when water mains are prone to breaking.
Lammertsen also said the city is prepared to tackle any maintenance issues that may come up.
The city has crews which are available 24/7 to respond to these situations.
When it comes to resources and staff, the city said it has just as many maintenance crews working in the winter as during summer.
Elliott said that with the reduction of cast iron water main pipes, the city expects to see less breaks as the old infrastructure gets replaced.