Overview
- Crews installed and welded a replacement segment on the Bearspaw South feeder main and began backfilling, with a careful multi‑day refill and testing sequence now underway that carries an elevated risk of further failure.
- Officials detailed a staged process to reintroduce water, including a roughly 48‑hour fill of a seven‑kilometre empty section, water‑quality testing, system stabilization, and close sensor monitoring during pressure increases.
- Daily use remains above sustainable levels at 507 million litres versus a 485‑million‑litre target, prompting emergency conservation appeals in Calgary and nearby communities and warnings about pressures on firefighting capacity.
- The city began temporary mitigation works to protect riverside neighborhoods, cutting outflow channels in a Bow River flood berm near Montgomery Boulevard and installing barriers along Parkdale to reduce flooding risk if the pipe fails again.
- An independent panel cited deferred inspections and governance gaps, noted limits of acoustic monitoring that detected no wire snaps before the Dec. 30 break, and council moved to fast‑track a new single accountable utility and accelerate a steel replacement pipe on a 12–14 month timeline.