Construction fencing and road closures have taken effect along some streets in Bowness as City of Calgary crews begin work on the next phase of the Bearspaw feeder main replacement project.
City officials announced Monday that construction will begin on 83 Street N.W. and 77 Street N.W., between 33 and 34 Avenue N.W. to connect the existing feeder main to the future replacement pipe.
Starting next month, crews will begin construction to install the replacement feeder main along 34 Avenue N.W., with work to begin between 79 and 80 Street N.W. as well as between 85 and 86 Street N.W.
According to city officials, crews will use an open-cut method to install the pipe, which will involve the digging of a trench in the middle of the roadway.
That work is expected to include significant impacts to residents in the area including detours, noise, parking restrictions and dust.
Crews already began work Monday outside Melba Seto’s home, one of several expected to be blocked by fencing over the coming weeks.
“There’s probably over a dozen houses right now that don’t have access to their front, and some people don’t even have alley access,” she told Global News. “So it’s a little frustrating, but we get it has to happen.”
There will be “rolling detours” along 34 Avenue N.W. over the coming months, city officials said, as crews dig and backfill trenches block by block throughout the installation.
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“We anticipate that installation of the pipe will take about four weeks in front of each block, some of the blocks are longer some of the blocks are shorter,” said Darren Finney, the city’s major projects manager.
“We’ll be coming in behind that to reinstate the road works, and the sidewalk and things like that. So roughly two months from start to finish.”
City officials said the open-cut approach was selected for several reasons, including that it was deemed the fastest option to replace the feeder main.
It’s a different approach than the first phase of the project, which began earlier this year with micro-tunnelling construction to reduce impacts on the surface between the Shaganappi Pump Station to 73 Street N.W. on the west side of the Bow River.
That approach involves the use of a boring machine digging a tunnel between a series of five shafts upwards of 25 metres deep to install a concrete pipe, which will be used as a slip line for a steel pipe to be installed.
Michael Thompson, the city’s general manager of infrastructure services, said work remains “on track” with digging currently underway between the shaft closest to Sarcee Trail and another shaft near the Bow River.
“To date, we’ve installed over one kilometre of concrete pipe out of the total of almost 3.7 km, and we should be done that by the end of August this year,” Thompson told reporters.
Thompson said construction of the sixth and final vertical shaft required for microtunnelling will begin Wednedsay on 16 Avenue N.W. near 44 Street N.W.
The Bearspaw feeder main, which carries roughly 60 per cent of the city’s drinking water, ruptured for the second time in less than two years in December.
Since emergency repairs took place earlier this year, officials have warned the pipe is “terminally ill” and could break again.
City officials approved expediting the project to replace the ailing feeder main, which began in January and is set to be complete in December.
“Replacing the Bearspaw South Feeder Main is Calgary’s top priority,” Thompson said. “We are working as fast as we can to complete this project.”
The competitive bid process for the project was cancelled and city officials instead awarded a sole-source contract to Ward & Burke Microtunnelling Ltd. and Graham Construction to fast-track the work.
The total cost associated with the Bearspaw feeder main, including its emergency repairs, is $439 million.
Work on the second phase of the replacement project is set to be complete in October, when another three weeks of water restrictions may be required as crews connect the new pipe with the city’s water network.
More information on those measures are expected this summer, Thompson said.
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