City crews juggle multiple water line breaks
Water could be seen surging up out of the pavement Wednesday on Victoria Avenue after a daysold water-main break worsened overnight.
Eastbound traffic was restricted to one lane on Victoria Avenue at the Ottawa Street intersection to avoid the bubbling source, with shallow water flowing across the traffic lane.
The City of Regina learned about the break last Thursday, said Pat Wilson, the city’s director of water works, and no customers are currently out of water because of it. She said the break looks worse than it really is, and that the area is safe. Initially, repairs had been scheduled for Saturday, but that changed when the available city crew had to be redirected to fix two connection breaks that were putting customers out of water elsewhere in the city.
Repairs were then rescheduled for this weekend, but again plans changed.
After the break grew Tuesday night, spewing more water, repairs have been bumped up to Thursday morning.
“That does involve a full closure of that space between, I believe, Toronto and St. John (streets), and we will be doing that towards the end of the busy period in the morning, so we plan to close the road at around 8:30 a.m. We do expect the work to be done before the afternoon rush, although we can always run into difficulties that could extend the period of the work,” said Wilson.
“During the actual repair, we will have to turn some homes (water) off. I believe it will likely be about a block’s worth.”
The city will give residents as much notice as possible before shutting off the water.
After a record number of watermain breaks last year, Wilson said this year is at a normal number for the season.
“In August last year we had 103 main breaks. So far this year we’ve fixed eight, now the ninth one running right now. So we’re at seasonal norms at the moment with the hot, dry weather that we’re having,” she said.
“We certainly could see an increase. It’s extremely difficult to predict. So, hot, dry weather means our clay soils dry out, and then that shifting causes our pipes to sheer.”
A water-main break repair typically costs the city $10,000 to $12,000, said Wilson.
To help prevent future watermain breaks, the City of Regina has set out $12 million this year for water infrastructure programs, which includes relining water mains with a plastic lining that makes old worn-out pipes run like new.