As the City of Calgary accelerates a project to replace the Bearspaw feeder main after two ruptures in less than two years, a city councillor is questioning whether the new pipe will provide redundancy for the city’s water system.
Last month, city officials announced it is fast-tracking the project, which would add a steel pipe of the same size and parallel to the existing pipe, set to be completed by the end of the year.
The first stage of the project runs from the Shaganappi Pump Station to 73 Street NW on the west side of the Bow River, with the second stage continuing to 89 Street NW.
However, Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness is raising concerns the new pipe won’t directly connect to the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant.
“We are still creating a single point of failure system because we are not actually creating a true twinned pipe,” Wyness told Global News.
According to Wyness, the new pipe will tie in to an existing steel line that runs under the Bow River to the treatment plant, which is currently connected to the existing feeder main.
The city is making similar mistakes to the past, Wyness said, by not twinning the line directly to the treatment plant and eliminating the “single point of failure.”
“It allows us, in 50 years, if the steel pipe under the river breaks, to end up in the exact same position,” Wyness said. “We’re creating that same piggyback pattern instead of fixing it when it’s broken.”
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The City of Calgary said it continues to evaluate “all options” for a future extension to the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant, but noted concerns around the existing steel pipe aren’t as significant as those around the prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP).
“The portion of the Bearspaw South Feeder Main that runs under the Bow River between the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant and the planned tie-in location with the Bearspaw South Feeder main at 89 Street NW, is made from steel and doesn’t carry the same risk of failure as the concrete pipe that we are focused on addressing through the stage B replacement project,” a city spokesperson said in a statement to Global News.
Kerry Black, a civil engineering professor at the University of Calgary, said the replacement project aims to address that risk.
“The replacement is happening, not just because of an issue with redundancy, but because we have a core problem with the pipe that exists right now,” Black said.
City officials were forced to impose restrictions on water consumption after both critical failures along the feeder main, as crews made emergency repairs to the line.
An independent panel tasked with reviewing the circumstances that led to the feeder main’s original break in June 2024 found insufficient long-term planning made Calgary’s system less resilient, and “limited system redundancy” increased the risk of failure.
According to Black, the city’s water system has a level of alternate measures in case of a failure, but not “true redundancy.”
“The fact we all still had water during the water main break is indicative of a level of redundancy,” she said.
According to city officials, developing redundancy across the water network will require long-term planning, with new feeder mains from the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant in planning and construction.
Early development work is underway on the North Calgary Water Servicing Project, which will see a new 22 kilometre feeder main and multiple support facilities built by the end of 2029. Another feeder main to the south from the treatment plant is “in early development” and expected to be complete by 2031.
“We will not remove all single points of failure overnight, adding redunancy and resiliency to the system takes time,” City of Calgary Infrastructure Services general manager Michael Thompson told a city committee Tuesday.
More information on the second stage of the Bearspaw feeder main replacement project is expected in the coming weeks.
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