Editor’s Message – Infrastructure Is on Everyone’s Mind
I am fairly certain the ink was still drying on our Summer 2024 issue when we first heard about the Bearspaw South Feeder Main break in Calgary.
Reports about the break were all over the news across Canada, and it’s still making headlines today. It also made for a feel-good story when the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) sent a segment of pipe north to aid in the rapid repair.
Based on my experience here at the magazine, I know that Calgary has been one of the more proactive regions when it comes to its watermain inspection program. As a matter of fact, in our Fall 2022 issue of Trenchless Technology Canada Pure Technologies provided a case study that looked at that program.
Here’s a section from that story, “The City of Calgary initially focused its inspection program on corrosion-induced metallic distribution main failures. However, in 2004, the scope of its program expanded to include feedermains after a catastrophic break on McKnight Boulevard. Failure of the 1,200-mm PCCP feedermain disrupted service to more than 100,000 customers, released more than 20 megalitres of water, and flooded McKnight Boulevard, shutting down a portion of this critical east-west transportation corridor for days. The failure occurred due to degradation of the pipeline’s concrete coating, which enabled corrosion of the steel wires that provide PCCP with its strength.”
You can read that story here: trenchlesstechnology.com/calgary-locates-leaks-avoids-feedermain-failure-with-inline-inspections.
Like the failure noted above, the Bearspaw South Feeder Main is a prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP), however, the Bearspaw South Feeder Main is the most critical main in Calgary’s system, so the impact of the break is much greater, with its serving approximately 1.2 million in the region.
As a matter of fact, according to information from the City of Calgary, a full condition assessment of the pipe was planned for December 2024.
If you read our June issue of Trenchless Technology Canada you’ll have noticed the case study, again from Xylem/Pure Technologies, about Calgary and the City of Airdrie leveraging data to proactively manage their buried drinking water infrastructure. In 2023, the two cities partnered to inspect the jointly owned Airdrie Feeder Main. This critical pipeline supplies the majority of clean water to Airdrie’s approximately 80,650 residents.
You can read that story here: trenchlesstechnology.com/how-proactive-pipeline-management-improves-outcomes-for-two-alberta-communities.
These two stories, and what happened in Calgary on June 5, illustrate that even with proactive asset management programs in place, problems can, and will, still occur.
It also illustrates what many in the industry have been shouting from rooftops for years. Our critical underground infrastructure is aging and there simply isn’t enough funding in place to adequately address the repairs that are needed.
I encourage everyone to get involved in disseminating this information to your local council and board members, mayors, city managers, etc. But go beyond an email or a phone call. Invite them, and encourage them to attend our key conferences and trade shows — especially when they take place in their own backyard. These are the people who need to be at our events as they control the purse strings.
You know what they say, “Seeing is believing.”
Cheers!
Mike Kezdi
Managing Editor
Trenchless Technology Canada
O: 330-752-1916
