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<\/p>\nFor the third time in less than two years, Calgarians are being asked to be mindful of their water use\u00a0as the city begins reinforcement work on a major water main.<\/p>\n
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The Bearspaw South Feeder Main shut down Monday for the project, which is expected to last roughly four weeks.<\/p>\n
City officials say pumps at the Bearspaw water treatment plant were shut off Monday and valves to the pipe have been closed to isolate it from the rest of the system. City crews\u00a0are now working on draining water from the pipe before repair work can begin.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the next four weeks, we will be reinforcing a total of nine pipe segments\u00a0\u2014 six on 16th Ave. NW near Sarcee Trail and three at Point McKay Park,\u201d explained Ryan Kidd, the city\u2019s deputy director of drinking water with Water Services.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the pipe is exposed, crews can start working on the concrete reinforcement. This will involve constructing an exterior reinforcing steel cage, then pouring concrete around the existing pipe.\u201d
Excavation work is set to begin Tuesday, which has prompted road closures and detours near the work sites.
According to city officials, lane reductions are in place on 16 Avenue near the Sarcee Trail interchange and westbound exits to and from Sarcee Trail are closed.
The feeder main normally supplies about 60 per cent of the city\u2019s water. During the shutdown, Calgary will rely on the smaller Glenmore Water Treatment Plant, which is operating at maximum capacity, for water.<\/p>\n
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If you haven\u2019t already, now is the time to start saving water for the next four weeks, said the city\u2019s director of Climate and Environment, Nicole Newton.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all need to pull together to keep our water use below 500 million litres a day. If we stay in the green zone below 500 million litres a day, our water system will be able to meet demand.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The city added that if it exceeds that daily limit, Calgary will be put at increased risk of insufficient water to fight fires, low water pressure and potential boil water advisories and\/or system failure resulting in no water.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second time in little more than two months that Calgarians have been forced under water restrictions due to the maligned pipe in the city\u2019s northwest.<\/p>\n
A significant break in the pipe on Dec. 30th\u00a0left Calgarians under similar restrictions for more than two weeks as crews rushed to repair the breach.<\/p>\n
At that time, the city was aiming for 485 million litres or less to be used by Calgarians and those in surrounding communities each day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really a wake up call and a lesson learned, not just for Calgary but for the whole country, of what\u2019s at stake when our infrastructure is aging and is starting to deteriorate,\u201d said Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n
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Recommended steps to limit water use include skipping toilet flushes, reducing showers to three minutes or less and only running dishwashers and washing machines with a full load.<\/p>\n
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas says putting the water savings in perspective could help Calgarians band together, although\u00a0this period\u00a0of water restrictions is different than the first time it happened in the summer of 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe primary challenge is that our region serves about 200,000 more people today than it did two years ago,\u201d Farkas explained. \u201cThe margin for error is that much less. But in our case, the silver lining is that we only need a 3 per cent reduction (in water use).\u201d
City officials noted there is no guarantee the pipe won\u2019t rupture a third time even after the repairs are complete.<\/p>\n
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According to Kidd, the repairs are meant to stabilize the feeder main until its replacement pipe is complete.<\/p>\n
Construction on the first phase of the project is already underway, which will use microtunnelling to install a new steel pipe between the Shaganappi Pump Station and 73 Street N.W. on the west side of the Bow River.<\/p>\n
Crews will use an \u201copen-cut\u201d method for the project\u2019s second stage, which runs from 73 Street N.W. to 87 Street N.W., with shovels set to go in the ground in May.<\/p>\n
City officials maintain the project will be completed by December.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\tCity opens resource centre during repair project<\/p>\n
The city also announced the opening of a dedicated resource centre for residents to\u00a0access\u00a0information on the repair work, as well as support and social services.<\/p>\n
The dedicated resource centre, located at the Bowness Community Association, is open Mondays and Wednesdays\u00a0from\u00a09 a.m. to\u00a05 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays\u00a0from\u00a010 a.m.\u00a0to\u00a07 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis centre is here to support the community through a challenging period,\u201d said John Acheson,\u00a0leader\u00a0of Community Integration Services at the City of Calgary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we receive feedback, comments, we are part of the project team, we meet daily to speak with all the great folks at the city working on this project, so we\u2019ll share that feedback with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
City officials warn this won\u2019t be the final time Calgarians will\u00a0need\u00a0to band together under water use restrictions\u00a0\u2014\u00a0another project to tie in the replacement pipe to the existing water network will take place in the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to remember, as we\u2019re going through this frustrating period of stage four water restrictions in Calgary again, that the end is in sight,\u201d Farkas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe light is at the end of the tunnel. We\u2019re almost through this, and we are doing everything we can as a city to get there as quickly as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2014 With files from Aaron D\u2019Andrea<\/p>\n
\n\t\t© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the third time in less than two years, Calgarians are being asked to be mindful of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[233019,233020,103,233021,192,79],"class_list":["post-514698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-bearspaw-feeder-main","tag-calgary-water-restrictions","tag-canada","tag-city-of-calgary","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}