{"id":423220,"date":"2026-01-21T08:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423220\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T08:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:24:11","slug":"calgary-awards-sole-source-contract-for-feeder-main-replacement-work-to-begin-this-week-calgary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423220\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary awards sole-source contract for feeder main replacement, work to begin this week – Calgary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Work to replace the ailing Bearspaw feeder main<\/a> is set to begin this week, after the City of Calgary<\/a> cancelled a competitive bid process and instead awarded a sole-source contract.<\/p>\n

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City of Calgary Infrastructure Services general manager Michael Thompson told city council Tuesday morning that work has been accelerated after the feeder main burst twice in less than two years, with no guarantees the repaired pipe won\u2019t break again.<\/p>\n

According to Thompson, materials were ordered on Friday and equipment and crews will be on site in the coming days.<\/p>\n

To help expedite the process, Thompson said officials made the \u201cunprecedented\u201d decision to cancel the competitive bid process for the replacement project and instead award a sole-source contract to Ward & Burke Microtunnelling Ltd. and Graham Construction.<\/p>\n

That bid process was set to close on Jan. 29, but Thompson said the city didn\u2019t have the time to wait until that deadline as it would impact \u201chaving this replacement pipe constructed by next winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe evaluated the risks that we were facing as a community and made the decision to cancel the existing procurement and to award it directly to a contractor who could start immediately,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cWe did that on Friday and that team started on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The risks under evaluation include depleting water levels in the Glenmore Reservoir, Thompson said, with just six weeks of city water supply available if it\u2019s relied upon at the same level in the event of another failure or shutdown of the Bearspaw feeder main.<\/p>\n

Thompson said the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant was operating at three times its normal winter capacity during repairs of the feeder main, which forced citywide water restrictions and repeated requests to reduce water consumption from city officials.<\/p>\n

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Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas called the effort a \u201cmegaproject,\u201d and reiterated his calls to have the replacement line finished in just a single year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur city administration has been given the go-ahead to get shovels in the ground,\u201d Farkas said. \u201cWe need to deliver what would otherwise be delivered in four years in one year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA map of the project to replace Calgary\u2019s Bearspaw feeder main.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Construction on the first phase of replacing the Bearspaw feeder main, between the Shaganappi Pump Station and 73 Street N.W. on the west side of the Bow River, was originally scheduled to start this spring.\u00a0 City crews plan to use micro-tunnelling on the first phase of the replacement.<\/p>\n

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The second phase continues from 73 Street N.W. to 89 Street N.W., with an extension to the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant.<\/p>\n

The original timeline had the project\u2019s completion sometime in 2028.<\/p>\n

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Kerry Black, a civil engineering professor at the University of Calgary, said there may be unexpected circumstances that arise which could delay the project, but completing the replacement within one year is possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a reasonable amount of time,\u201d she told Global News. \u201cWill it require a significant amount of work? Absolutely. Is it going to cost significant resources?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The total costs of the replacement project have not yet been made public, but Farkas said it could total \u201chundreds of millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that the initial estimate was $200 million, so you\u2019re looking at a bit of a margin above that in terms of delivering the pipe at speed,\u201d Farkas said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:07
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCity officials working on next steps for replacing Bearspaw feeder main\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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According to city officials, funding for the first phase of the replacement is being covered by $1.1 billion approved by the previous city council council for various city water projects between now and 2031, including new feeder mains and water treatment plant upgrades.<\/p>\n

However, Thompson said administration will be requesting more funds from city council for the second phase of the replacement and upcoming reinforcement repairs on the existing Bearspaw feeder main.<\/p>\n

City councillors will need to determine where to find the funding required, but Farkas said \u201call options are on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be some cost considerations, potentially around property taxes, around rates that Calgarians pay,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake, there will be significant costs to addressing this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Calgary
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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Work to replace the ailing Bearspaw feeder main is set to begin this week, after the City of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[165678,49,71388,177137,48,24156,44,714],"class_list":["post-423220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-bearspaw-feeder-main","tag-ca","tag-calgary-city-council","tag-calgary-city-hall","tag-canada","tag-city-of-calgary","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}