16th Avenue N.W. closure starts Thursday as city continues feeder main repairs

As the City of Calgary moves forward with repairs to the Bearspaw south feeder main, a road closure will begin Thursday on a portion of 16th Avenue N.W. in Montgomery.

The major roadway will be closed from 46th Street to 41st Street, with traffic being detoured onto Bowness Road, said Michael Thompson, the city's general manager of infrastructure, during a regular update Wednesday. 

"Our team has designed a traffic plan that keeps the majority of business driveways open and enables parking and provides clear direction for customers looking to visit establishments," said Thompson. 

Repair work along 33rd Avenue N.W. and in Shouldice Park remains on schedule, Thompson noted. Excavation at all 12 pipe segment sites has been completed. Four of the pipe segments have now been encased in concrete. Excavation at the final site along 33rd Avenue was due to begin Wednesday. 

Tuesday's water use was slightly up from Monday's, at 506 million litres, a level that Thompson called "unsustainable."

"We are running the system at maximum capacity, which means that we are stretching it beyond what is reasonable for long periods of time," he said.

The city's target for water use across the city is 485 million litres per day, a threshold it says still allows for underground water storage tanks to be adequately refilled, while safeguarding the Glenmore water treatment plant. 

Over the past couple of days, the city's water crews have had to attend to a pump failure and an issue with a component in the water treatment process — symptoms of pushing the city's water system to its limit, Thompson said. 

"As we enter into hotter temperatures over the next few days, it is important to reduce demand as much as we can."

Calgary is under Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions, which prohibits the use of potable water outside. The city is also encouraging residents to reduce their water use indoors, by taking shorter showers and flushing toilets less often. 

On Wednesday, Mayor Jyoti Gondek said some Calgarians aren't taking the restrictions as seriously as they did when the feeder main first burst in June — in part because these restrictions were planned in advance. 

"I'm here to remind you that it is equally critical. We don't have a regular amount of water flowing through our system. In order to keep water flowing to all homes and businesses in Calgary and the region, we all need to reduce our water usage."

"We can keep reminding folks and I know people will settle into a pattern and a process like they did in June."