Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said an independent third party review into the water main break will help to create a long-term vision into the city’s system into 2030 and beyond. Gondek confirmed City of Calgary City Manager David Duckworth has put together a plan to create an independent third panel and will present it to a committee next week. “The independent review will also help other cities learn how to avoid what happened in Calgary,” said Gondek at a Wednesday press conference. “Now some of you may have heard Quebec City has suffered a water main failure recently as well, and I’ll make sure I reach out to Mayor [Bruno] Marchand for any support and expertise our city can provide.” After convening multiple groups of experts from oil and gas, construction, and underground work, she said she knows Calgary “can act as a leader in what will no doubt be an important time in our nation’s history.” She added water infrastructure installed decades ago is coming to a time when it will need replacing. In response, she has been working with mayors across Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to ensure cities receive a fair amount of federal funding for water infrastructure. On the work sites on 16 Ave., she said backfilling began on Tuesday night and paving will start on Wednesday. She called that “another important milestone to get us back up and running to regular levels.” By moving forward with the repairs, she said it is an important step in getting traffic flowing better and having customers go to the businesses in Montgomery that have experienced challenges in the last few weeks. The mayor went on to say workers are beginning the four-step process of fill, flush, test, and stabilize. On Wednesday, she said they will begin filling the pipe, bringing it up to pressure. After that, they will flush it to ensure contaminants are not in the feeder main. Once the pipe is flushed, water samples will be sent to labs for testing and approval by Alberta Health Services. Calgary’s water system will need to be stabilized before it can return to normal. She said these steps have to be taken to ensure its water is safe and can be returned to regular levels for all Calgarians. Gondek said on Tuesday Calgarians can take comfort knowing that work to replaced damaged sections of its leaky water main are complete and the water could be flowing again by the middle of next week.READ MORE: Despite progress, City still in hot water over leaky pipesThat is because the repair phase is coming to a close almost three weeks to the day following the June 5 failure.The problem is the refill and restore phases are trickier to pull off, and the City of Calgary could still be struggling with water shortages well into the Calgary Stampede or longer.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said an independent third party review into the water main break will help to create a long-term vision into the city’s system into 2030 and beyond. Gondek confirmed City of Calgary City Manager David Duckworth has put together a plan to create an independent third panel and will present it to a committee next week. “The independent review will also help other cities learn how to avoid what happened in Calgary,” said Gondek at a Wednesday press conference. “Now some of you may have heard Quebec City has suffered a water main failure recently as well, and I’ll make sure I reach out to Mayor [Bruno] Marchand for any support and expertise our city can provide.” After convening multiple groups of experts from oil and gas, construction, and underground work, she said she knows Calgary “can act as a leader in what will no doubt be an important time in our nation’s history.” She added water infrastructure installed decades ago is coming to a time when it will need replacing. In response, she has been working with mayors across Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to ensure cities receive a fair amount of federal funding for water infrastructure. On the work sites on 16 Ave., she said backfilling began on Tuesday night and paving will start on Wednesday. She called that “another important milestone to get us back up and running to regular levels.” By moving forward with the repairs, she said it is an important step in getting traffic flowing better and having customers go to the businesses in Montgomery that have experienced challenges in the last few weeks. The mayor went on to say workers are beginning the four-step process of fill, flush, test, and stabilize. On Wednesday, she said they will begin filling the pipe, bringing it up to pressure. After that, they will flush it to ensure contaminants are not in the feeder main. Once the pipe is flushed, water samples will be sent to labs for testing and approval by Alberta Health Services. Calgary’s water system will need to be stabilized before it can return to normal. She said these steps have to be taken to ensure its water is safe and can be returned to regular levels for all Calgarians. Gondek said on Tuesday Calgarians can take comfort knowing that work to replaced damaged sections of its leaky water main are complete and the water could be flowing again by the middle of next week.READ MORE: Despite progress, City still in hot water over leaky pipesThat is because the repair phase is coming to a close almost three weeks to the day following the June 5 failure.The problem is the refill and restore phases are trickier to pull off, and the City of Calgary could still be struggling with water shortages well into the Calgary Stampede or longer.
