{"id":513889,"date":"2026-03-04T14:40:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/513889\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T14:40:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:40:48","slug":"calgary-needs-an-extra-609m-for-bearspaw-feeder-main-water-infrastructure-upgrades-calgary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/513889\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary needs an extra $609M for Bearspaw feeder main, water infrastructure upgrades – Calgary"},"content":{"rendered":"

City of Calgary officials are asking city council for another injection of funds for upgrades to the city\u2019s water infrastructure, which is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

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The request, which was added as urgent business to Tuesday\u2019s executive committee meeting, asks city councillors to approve a $6o9.5 million boost to the city\u2019s capital budget in 2026 and 2027, to help fast-track several water infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

It comes after the previous city council approved more than $1 billion in borrowing for water infrastructure, which was included in this year\u2019s budget by the current city council.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very much about catching up to where the city needs to be,\u201d Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas told reporters.<\/p>\n

According to city officials, $222 million of the funding boost will be directed to a new 22-km feeder main north from the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant, which is already under construction, and another $15 million will pay for advanced metering infrastructure.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFailing to take action would put service reliability at risk, which is vital for maintaining the availability and quality of essential services. Continued investment is needed to address,\u201d reads the report to committee. \u201cVulnerabilities and ensure the system remains strong and resilient for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:52
\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\tCalgary water restrictions for feeder main repairs to return in March\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The total cost associated with the Bearspaw feeder main, which suffered its second critical failure in less than two years on Dec. 30, 2025, is expected to be $439 million.\u00a0 Although $71.6 million has already been approved by city council, and the funding increase would see an additional $367.4 million earmarked for the project.<\/p>\n

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The bulk of that funding, $318 million, will be to replace the feeder main with a new steel pipe parallel to the existing line.\u00a0 The project was fast-tracked earlier this year and is expected to be complete by December.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were always going to be building that but we were going to be doing it over 2026, 2027 and 2028,\u201d City of Calgary Infrastructure Services general manager Michael Thompson told Global News.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve accelerated all of that and we\u2019re going to be delivering it in 2026, so we need that funding now to do all that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA map of the Bearspaw feeder main replacement project.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

City officials are putting aside $40 million for reinforcement repairs to the feeder main, which is slated to begin on March 9 and will require water restrictions for four weeks.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe city of Calgary will be shutting down the Bearspaw South Feeder Main again, starting Mar. 9, to do repairs of several sections of the pipe along 16 Avenue N.W. near Sarcee Trail.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSource: City of Calgary\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Another $18 million will be allocated for a \u201cslip line,\u201d a new liner that will be installed in the existing feeder main to help stabilize the pipe.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis price tag, it doesn\u2019t just deliver the replacement of the line, but it also brings back our existing that\u2019s failing back to a serviceable standard,\u201d Farkas said. \u201cSo we actually get two Bearspaw feeder mains for this price tag.\u201d<\/p>\n

City administration is also requesting an operating budget increase of $21.3 million from reserves to \u201cprovide boots-on-the-ground capacity\u201d for\u00a0city water services.<\/p>\n

According to a report to committee members, the funding will pay for \u201cadditional frontline crews, inspection and monitoring capacity, updated asset management, strengthening of emergency preparedness, water demand implementation, and capital to operational
transition and readiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The majority of the funding request, $564.4 million, would be financed through self-supported debt, expected to push the city\u2019s debt limit to 45 per cent in 2026 and 50 per cent in 2027.<\/p>\n

Although the move won\u2019t impact water rates in 2026, city officials note rates are expected to increase by 14 per cent in 2027, or an additional $17 monthly.<\/p>\n

\u201cLately there\u2019s not a lot of good news for Calgarians for pocketbook issues like for paying for this water pipe and property taxes,\u201d Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was neglect and it\u2019s unacceptable. I\u2019m angry but we have to move forward and we have to get it fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s executive committee unanimously approved the funding request, which will require a decision by city council on March 17.<\/p>\n

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A final decision on water rates will have to wait until budget talks in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to fix this,\u201d Farkas said. \u201cIt\u2019s honestly embarrassing for us as a city of almost two million people that we can\u2019t rely on safe drinking water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City of Calgary officials are asking city council for another injection of funds for upgrades to the city\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[165678,49,2798,71388,162170,48,24156,714],"class_list":["post-513889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-bearspaw-feeder-main","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-city-council","tag-calgary-water-main-break","tag-canada","tag-city-of-calgary","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513889","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=513889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}