Charlottetown grapples with numerous water main breaks over last 2 weeks

Crews with the water and sewer utility in Charlottetown are grappling with a high number of water main breaks across the city this month.

In the last two weeks, there have been five water main breaks, mostly in the central part of the city.

Richard MacEwen, manager of the city'swater and sewer utility, said having so many water main breaks in such a short period of time is unusual, but the total number of breaks the city has seen so far in 2019 is similar to previous years.

"Anytime during the winter or as we're hopefully now coming into the spring, when we see those seasonal changes or very cold days and then a bit of a warming we can see main breaks," MacEwen said."But I would say itcertainly keeps us busy and might be bordering onunusual."

Aging pipes, cold weather

MacEwen saidwater main breaks in Charlottetown have been increasing over the last few years. Last year there were 21 breaks and this year there have already been 10.

He said this is caused in part by aging infrastructure in some parts of the city the pipes are over 100 years old as well asfrost levels getting deeper into the ground.

"When the frost gets down at the level of the main break you might have soil compressing and trying to move the main or if that frost then recedes a bit you might get a release, or any movement could impact the main break," MacEwen said.

He said water main breaks are most common when temperatures begin to warm up, which causes the ground to shift and puts extrapressure on pipes.

No breaks in rehabilitated pipes so far

MacEwen saideach water main break can cost from $5,000-$10,000 to fix. He saidthe city is monitoring areas where breaks are happening and will prioritize those spots as it moves forward with its water main rehabilitation project.

So far, the city has updated pipes in the Parkdale neighbourhood and MacEwen said he hasn't received any reports of water mains breaking in that area.

"That is an area where we would often see a main break so thiswinter we have not seen any main breaks in that area and fingers crossed that will continue to be the case," hesaid.

MacEwen said this year the city will be entering a planning phase of the project andfurther rehabilitation of water main lines in other parts of the city is expected to resume in2020.

City crews will be checking on road surfaces in the areas where water mains have been replaced, MacEwen said.

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