{"id":490650,"date":"2026-02-21T20:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T20:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490650\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T20:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T20:41:08","slug":"how-could-calgary-have-two-bursts-to-largest-water-feeder-main","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490650\/","title":{"rendered":"How could Calgary have two bursts to largest water feeder main?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Water bursts through a portion of 16 Avenue NW in Calgary on Dec. 30, 2025, trapping people in their vehicles while a section of the Trans-Canada Highway turns into a river.<\/p>\n

That night, 13 people were rescued<\/a> from their vehicles by first responders. Videos posted to social media show a family with young children huddled on the roof of their vehicle while water pooled around them.<\/p>\n

Eric Wisniewski and his wife were caught in the rush, saying that \u201cthe water started filling in the car. It was at the seats within a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next morning, daylight showed the extent of the damage. Large chunks of pavement strewn about, vehicles left abandoned.<\/p>\n

It was then that city officials confirmed the worst: Another catastrophic break to the same feeder main that burst in June 2024.<\/p>\n

It was a scene all too familiar to Calgarians who faced months of water restrictions in 2024 when the Bearspaw South Feeder Main burst for the first time. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s Calgary\u2019s largest water main that carries 60 per cent of the city\u2019s treated water. Thirty different sections of that pipe were repaired following the burst, and monitoring equipment was installed to ensure the city receives ample warning if pipe segments are weakening.<\/p>\n

But on Dec. 30, the city says they had no warning. In a flash, the city\u2019s most crucial piece of infrastructure failed, again.<\/p>\n

It prompted questions \u2014 how could a catastrophic break happen twice in the span of a year and a half? The answer was something city officials didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know why this pipe broke,\u201d said Michael Thompson, the city\u2019s General Manager of Infrastructure Services. \u201cWe need to figure that out, and we need to look at other sections of the pipe that we were monitoring and find out what action we need to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fallout was swift. Many online blamed former mayors and council members, with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith joining in<\/a>, taking a jab at three-term Calgary mayor and current leader of the Alberta NDP, Naheed Nenshi.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the (2013) floods for 10 years, they didn\u2019t bother to do any investigation on the water main,\u201d she said during a press conference in the following days. \u201cYou have to ask the question, who was the mayor after the floods of 2013 until he decided to retire? That was Naheed Nenshi.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response<\/a>, the former mayor called that claim \u201cgarbage,\u201d saying no water mains broke during his tenure, and before the Bearspaw breaks, the last burst was to the McKnight Feeder Main back in 2004.<\/p>\n

With more accusations than answers, all eyes were on the findings of a soon-to-be-released independent review into the previous water main break, initiated under the leadership of former Mayor Jyoti Gondek. With mounting pressure from politicians and the public, the findings were made public a week later<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe you would have averted having this situation of water curtailment,\u201d explained the panel chair, retired ATCO CEO Siegfried Kiefer. \u201cThere were several opportunities over the last couple of decades to build in resiliency and redundancy associated with that Bearspaw Feeder Main.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 86-page report pointed to systemic gaps in the city\u2019s risk and asset planning, as well as issues in governance and management. Those issues were intensified in the face of Calgary\u2019s rapidly growing population and, like many municipalities across the country, underinvestment in aging infrastructure. Put together, it was a combination that prompted the panel members to advise a drastic overhaul within city hall.<\/p>\n

The review revealed \u201cinspection recommendations made in 2017, 2020, and 2022 were deferred or redirected,\u201d with a scathing review of upper management, citing \u201cunclear accountability and a culture of risk tolerance and decision deferral.\u201d It also found that because the city\u2019s water utility is split across multiple departments, the first person who receives all reports on water is the city\u2019s chief administrative officer, David Duckworth.<\/p>\n

The response from Mayor Jeromy Farkas and council was swift, voting in favour of moving forward on all of the panel\u2019s recommendations. During a regularly scheduled review of the metrics of the CAO\u2019s job performance, mandated regular updates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very clear that past councils played it way too loose in terms of providing firm direction with our city managers as well as holding them accountable for results,\u201d said Farkas.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur city council will be doing things very differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

No blame for elected officials<\/p>\n

One of the more damning pieces found in the review was that no council or mayor could have prevented what happened. The review found \u201creporting to council was periodic and high-level,\u201d and that \u201cmany critical decisions were never surfaced to council.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know,\u201d explained long-term councillor Andre Chabot, who has sat in council chambers since 2005, excluding a single term in the late 2010s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf council had been made aware of the criticality of this pipe, they certainly would have addressed it at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding that because of the way the pipe was constructed, it was incredibly difficult to do a rigorous inspection, as the industry-standard tests didn\u2019t raise alarm bells.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even think that even administration had a full understanding of how critical this piece of infrastructure was because even through the electromagnetic testing, the independent report even indicated that electromagnetic testing did not actually reveal where some of the wires had broken,\u201d says Chabot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sort of gave a false positive insofar as some of the areas where we ultimately decided we needed to do repairs. So it was really hard, especially with the older technology, to be able to assess whether or not the pipe was at risk of failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary\u2019s 2004 feeder main burst<\/p>\n

\"CityCity of Calgary crew members work on the McKnight Feeder Main break in 2004. (AChannel, CityNews image)<\/p>\n

In 2004, Calgary\u2019s McKnight Feeder Main burst. Subsequent reviews blamed highly corrosive soil conditions, with the culprit being sulphates that broke down the outer mortar of the pipe. <\/p>\n

This break is highlighted in the 86-page independent review as one of the first signs that the Bearspaw South Feeder Main would eventually fail.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was close to home for me because I live in the northeast,\u201d explains Chabot, who would become city councillor for the area in the following year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did extensive analysis of the ground and its chemical composition in close proximity to the pipe elsewhere in the city. So I think the city did its due diligence at the time to determine whether or not there was a likelihood of failure in other areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent panel, however, suggests the city was looking at the wrong conclusion. Instead of looking at a specific chemical, the focus should have been on the pipe\u2019s material itself and how it was susceptible to corrosion when the soil is \u201cchemically aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both the Bearspaw and McKnight feeder mains were made of the same material \u2014 prestressed concrete cylinder pipe, or PCCP. A thin steel cylinder is lined with cement, and high-tension wires are wrapped around the pipe with a mortar casing on the outside.<\/p>\n

The pipes were expected to have a 100-year lifespan, but cities across the country are finding out that isn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

Pipe failures raise questions as Calgary leads in water pipe inspections<\/p>\n

\"MontrealFirefighters on scene after Montreal streets are flooded on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024. (Swidda Rassy, CityNews Image)<\/p>\n

Just months after Calgary\u2019s initial break in 2024, Montreal fell victim to a PCCP pipe failure. City officials said the pipe had suffered corrosion over the years but believed they had more time before repairs were needed.<\/p>\n

The numerous failures of this type of pipe have left many in the industry scratching their heads. Particularly those in Calgary, who say this city has led the way in water pipe inspections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe City of Calgary has been viewed by other municipalities, not just in Canada, but North America, as leading in this initiative, as being proactive since about 20 years ago, really looking at the leakage within the pipes and how they can minimize that,\u201d says Kerry Black, a Canada Research Chair and associate professor of Civil Engineering with the University of Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s such a wake-up call for other cities and municipalities because if it can happen here, where we were really proactive in doing the best as we could as a city to prioritize our infrastructure, it can really happen anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something a former senior infrastructure engineer with the City of Calgary echoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (independent) panel gave the public the impression that the city had been aware that these pipes can break since 20 years ago, and that we\u2019ve sort of neglected the risk for the whole 20 years, when in fact we kind of sprung into action with one of the most ambitious inspection programs in the world,\u201d says Roy Brander.<\/p>\n

Brander spent three decades working on the city\u2019s water pipes and helping develop inspection programs until his retirement in 2016. Those inspections have since been used worldwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very proud of it,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt makes me frustrated when the pipe that was due for inspection four months later broke at just the worst time, making us look bad and look as if we hadn\u2019t been doing anything when we\u2019d been doing nearly everything possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he and his team replaced at least five different sections of pipe that he believes would have broken if left unattended.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019d inspected, we wouldn\u2019t have found it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite known issues with PCCP pipes, Brander says the break to the Bearspaw South Feeder Main was caused by something not typically seen \u2014 instead of sulphate corrosion like previous breaks, it was high levels of chloride, painting a concerning picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to hear the difference between this beak and all the breaks that came before it? It\u2019s hugely significant, and I\u2019ll just tell you flatly, I\u2019m scared,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m scared because this break was not caused by the same kind of corrosion that caused the previous breaks.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says crews were able to control the situation \u201cvery well\u201d with sulphates after finding the broken wires with their inspection tools and replacing the main early.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe blame for the 2024 breaks was laid upon us not having inspected. We now know that if we\u2019d inspected, we wouldn\u2019t have found it because the big break that happened at the end of December 2025 happened in an area that was heavily inspected,\u201d says Brander.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at those inspection reports; they\u2019re online \u2014 anybody can download them. Maybe not everybody can read them, but I can. There were simply almost no wire breaks in the area in front of Rona, where the main just exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the City of Calgary was relying on hearing wire snaps in the pipe, chlorides in the soil were eating at the wires. It didn\u2019t cause them to snap, but rendered them brittle and weak \u2014 something that doesn\u2019t show up in inspections.<\/p>\n

\"BurstFILE \u2013 Burst pipe in Calgary in 2025. (Courtesy of the City of Calgary)<\/p>\n

Chloride is common in soil; it\u2019s found in the salt used to clear roads in the winter. What was uncommon, though, Brander says, is high levels along riverbeds because the river would wash it away. He says we still don\u2019t know exactly what caused the chloride levels to be so high that they degraded the pipe to the point of failure.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of the tests showed staggeringly high levels of chlorides. Either we missed them 14 years ago, we only took five tests in six kilometres, maybe we happened to spot all the places that did not have chlorides by sheer bad luck, or a hell of a lot of road salt has been dumped on that main in the last 10 years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

According to Brander, that\u2019s something the independent panel didn\u2019t look into.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t talk to the roads department at all. They didn\u2019t ask if they\u2019d changed their road salting protocols or changed the amounts they put on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I looked at the forensics report that was turned in, the same one with all the inspection data, it mentioned clearly that the parts that broke in 2024 had far more breaks in the main once you removed it than were ever visible in the inspections.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hopes we don\u2019t see additional pipe failures due to that type of corrosion, and that the industry can develop reliable, cost-effective inspection tools to check when the wire\u2019s integrity has been compromised but hasn\u2019t snapped.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as city council moves forward with the panel\u2019s recommendations on straightening up affairs inside city hall, those in the industry are calling for their perspectives to be included when big decisions are made in council chambers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something the panel\u2019s report says has been lacking in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe report helps us make a path forward, but it\u2019s not altogether different from a lot of the recommendations and governance pieces that have been discussed already,\u201d says Black. \u201cIf these same recommendations arrived on the mayor\u2019s doorstep two years ago, before the pipe had broken, I don\u2019t think you\u2019d see the same level of response because you don\u2019t have pubic outcry and a push to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

More funding needed nationwide to repair water infrastructure<\/p>\n

With the Bearspaw South Feeder Main still in service, the reliability of Calgary\u2019s drinking water remains at risk. Mayor Farkas and other members of city administration have described the pipe as \u201cterminally ill.\u201d <\/p>\n

The construction of a twinned replacement line has been drastically accelerated and is now expected to be in service as of Dec. 1, 2026, three years sooner than originally planned.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the City of Calgary is prepared for another break if or when it happens. Sandbags have been stacked along a portion of the Bow River. Sections of flood mitigation have been removed. The city also announced more water restrictions starting on March 9<\/a> as crews reinforce sections of the pipe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been lucky with these water main (breaks),\u201d says Brander. \u201cIf the break at Rona had been just a little bit worse, there could have been traffic accidents, and people could\u2019ve died.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s actual risks to life and limb even in a water system. Not as severe as they are in a medical system, but you are eventually putting risk of infrastructure failure against human life.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the possibility of serious consequences, there\u2019s hope Calgary\u2019s dual breaks along the Trans Canada highway could act as a wakeup call for elected officials nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a focus on exciting, ribbon-cutting projects because that\u2019s what gets people to the door,\u201d says Black. \u201cWe know if you invest in core infrastructure, so that\u2019s your water, wastewater, things like that, roads. That it creates jobs. It\u2019s an economic boom; it increases GDP. So it has a similar effect that building new projects does.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s calling on the federal and provincial governments to increase investment in repairing existing lines to curb the national issue of deteriorating infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a 300-billion-dollar infrastructure deficit, plus, in Canada. Can\u2019t take that on at a municipal level, we need provinces and the federal government with a larger tax base to help us bear that cost,\u201d says Black.<\/p>\n

She adds that despite two catastrophic bursts, she doesn\u2019t believe Calgary\u2019s reputation has changed. In fact, she says other municipalities are looking to Calgary, once again, to find a path forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of looking at Calgary and going \u2018oh wow that happened over there, we\u2019re safe,\u2019 everyone\u2019s looking internally and going \u2018goodness if that can happen in Calgary, we really need to pull up our socks here and figure out if we\u2019re ready for something like this,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to be in similar positions moving forward with their aging infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

With two catastrophic breaks to the city\u2019s most crucial water line in the span of a year and a half, city crews and Calgarians will be hoping we don\u2019t see additional breaks before work is set to be completed on a twinned replacement line this December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Water bursts through a portion of 16 Avenue NW in Calgary on Dec. 30, 2025, trapping people in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-490650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490650","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=490650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}