Vehicle damage expected in flooded 108 St. parkade

Crews were working around the clock to empty an office building parkade that flooded during a water main break in downtown Edmonton.

Forty-four Capital Blvd. — 10044 108 St. — was the only building still without power Thursday after a water main broke beneath the street Wednesday. Water poured from the break for more than an hour, flooding sections of Jasper Avenue and forcing the evacuation of several buildings.

Darin Comrie, vice-president of asset management with real estate company Morguard, said water had flooded into the electrical vault on the lowest level of the parkade, and staff were looking to acquire a generator.

“There’s considerable water in there — they’ve been pumping it all night and continue to pump it out,” he said Thursday.

In the lower level of the parkade, he had heard water was higher than wheel-deep. He had no estimate of when the building might reopen.

“Our tenants — when we do get them back in — there’s going to be some damage to vehicles on that lower level for sure.”

He said the provincial government was the largest tenant in the building. The first goal was to restore life safety equipment to allow employees to re-enter the building to collect their belongings.

“As far as a long term plan, we’ll probably be on generators for a while until we can determine a permanent solution … because (the equipment) was severely damaged.”

Epcor said it was making “significant progress” repairing the broken water line and hoped service would be restored to all customers Thursday.

The break reported south of Jasper at 108 Street Wednesday affected nearly 500 Epcor customers and flooded underground electrical equipment, creating power outages, spokesman Tim LeRiche said.

“On water, (Epcor crews) are still working on the repair of the line and hope to have everybody back in service sometime today. We have made significant progress.”

Nearby Corona LRT station took on water during the break but was up and running by rush hour Wednesday, city spokesman Rowan Anderson said. Three of four entrances to the station had reopened — there was no timeline for when the south 108 Street entrance would reopen.

Engineers were brought in to test track integrity after the water got in, he added.