State of emergency declared in Calgary, repairs are weeks away

Our initial estimates are that are that the work will take three to five weeks to complete. Well, a state of emergency has now been declared and Calgarians will have to wait a little longer than previously thought for the broken water main on 16th Ave. to be repaired. That's after five additional locations along the pipe were identified as in need of repair. The city is now giving an estimated timeline of three to five weeks before this critical piece of infrastructure can return to operation. Working with partners across North America to source parts we need for an immediate repair, but it will take time. Now, that additional damage was located by a robotic survey of the pipe at Jason to the original break. And that additional damage officials say, is similar to what they believe caused that original break. That's damage to the steel wires that wrap around the pipe as part of its construction. They say this work should be done immediately as further catastrophic failures are possible. If not, they say that state of emergency, meanwhile, will give them the powers they hope will speed up that process. As we get materials and equipment coming in, there's going to need to be a staging process around those sites, and that staging process could require us to be going on to private property. So with the state of local emergency in place, we will be able to access the space that we need to do the staging to get the work done. They acknowledge that this extended timeline will prove challenging for Calgarians as those outdoor water restrictions will remain in place and the calls for voluntary indoor conservation measures will continue as well. Meanwhile, the Calgary Stampede, which boasts over 1,000,000 visitors every single year. Is now just over two weeks away. Stampede is one of our agency members and their teams are downstairs as we speak working on contingency plans and and helping understand this news. They just received the same news today, so it's too early to to project what will occur.