The City of Calgary has closed an exit ramp off the TransCanada Highway in the city’s northwest after wire snaps were detected along the ailing Bearspaw feeder main.
In an update to residents Friday morning, the city announced the exit ramp from the westbound 16 Avenue N.W. exit to Sarcee Trail is closed, and that traffic would be detoured to 29 Avenue N.W.
The city said the detour would be in place “until further notice” and is meant to “support public safety.”
City crews are focused on two segments of the feeder main that have an “enhanced level of deterioration,” and are taking precautionary measures after each segment experienced wire snaps detected by the city’s fibre optic monitoring.
“As we continue to operate the pipe in its current condition and scenario plan, our risk mitigation strategies will continue to evolve,” the city said in its update.
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According to the city, crews are closely monitoring the pipe, but no changes are being made to the operating pressure of the feeder main at this time as “changes to pressure come with additional risk.”
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said the road closure and detour are out of “an abundance of caution,” ahead of line repairs scheduled for the spring and fall.
The pipe will need to be shut down, and water restrictions will be implemented to undertake those repairs, city officials have said.
“It is likely that this specific location will be top of mind for us as we get into the spring and fall for those proactive measures,” he told reporters.
The segments in question appear near the site where the feeder main that carries 60 per cent of the city’s drinking water ruptured on Dec. 30 2025, its second critical failure in less than two years.
The Bearspaw feeder main, which carries 60 per cent of Calgary’s drinking water, has suffered two ‘catastrophic’ breaks in less than two years.
Global News
Following that break, which forced citywide water restrictions for nearly three weeks, city officials warned there is no guarantee the pipe won’t rupture again.
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“We can do everything we can in the short term to band-aid it, to nurse it back to health,” Farkas said Friday. “But in the long term, this pipe could fail at any time. So we want to be crystal clear and transparent with Calgarians about that.”
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Farkas said the closures allow for contingencies in case the pipe fails again.
Much of the Bearspaw feeder main is made of pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe, installed in 1975. The layers of concrete are encased in a steel cylinder and wrapped with high-tension steel wires and coated in mortar.
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A “wire snap” is when those steel coils wrapped tightly around the pipe break due to stress or corrosion.
According to the city, monitoring has heard a total of three wire snaps along the line since the feeder main was repressurized and returned to service last month.
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Following the feeder main’s original break in June 2024, city crews reinforced and replaced dozens of pipe segments deemed to be at risk of failure.
Kerry Black, a civil engineering professor at the University of Calgary, said it’s not surprising the pipe has experienced further wire snaps but noted it doesn’t necessarily mean a failure is imminent.
“Is it concerning? Potentially,” Black told Global News. “What we’re seeing though in the response from the city is that we’ve got a massive project underway and moving forward, so they’re taking every possible precaution to make sure that the city’s water supply continues to remain safe and sustainable, but that they’re not necessarily putting at risk the other project that they’re working on.”
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In response to the pipe’s failure late last year, the City of Calgary announced it is fast-tracking a project to replace the aging pipe, which will see a steel pipe installed parallel to the existing line.
A map of the Bearspaw feeder main replacement project.
Global News
Both phases of the project will take place concurrently, the mayor said, with crews set to use micro tunnelling to install the new pipe between the Shaganappi Pump Station and 73 Street N.W. An open-cut method will be used for the rest of the line, which includes excavating a trench along 34 Avenue N.W.
“We’re doing this right the first time so that this is the last year that Montgomery and Bowness are subjected to this,” Farkas said. “We’re fixing this once and for all.”
City officials have maintained the replacement pipe will be completed by December, while original timelines had a completion date in 2028.
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