16th Avenue N.W. to reopen Monday as feeder main repairs near finish line

The city says 16th Avenue N.W. will reopen Monday as work starts wrapping up to repair broken sections of the Bearspaw feeder main.

Francois Bouchart, the City of Calgary's director of capital priorities and investment, shared the traffic update Friday when he addressed the city's water situation.

He reiterated the news from Thursday, when Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek announced water restrictions could be lifted in 10 days.

"Our updated timeline for the end of water restrictions remains the same," Bouchart said.

"If all goes according to plan, we expect to return to normal water use and lift all outdoor water restrictions over the weekend of Sept. 21."

It comes as water use in the city declined again Thursday, with 473 million litres of demand, staying in the "green zone" and remaining below the threshold officials set for sustainability.

Even though restrictions could be lifted roughly a week earlier than expected, Bouchart echoed the same message that's been repeated since construction began in late August. 

"As we complete repairs and reopen roads, we need everyone to help save water until the feeder main is back in service," he said.

"Keeping water demand at or below 485 million litres as we've achieved over the past couple of days helps us refill underground storage reservoirs and allows for crucial preventative maintenance."

As construction work — including paving and fixing curbs and gutters — wraps up, the roads that were closed during repairs will open as early as the weekend.

Bouchart said that, depending on the weather, traffic will resume this weekend on 33rd Avenue east of 83rd Street N.W. The section west of 83rd Street is anticipated to reopen next week. 

The city expects to reopen 16th Avenue in Montgomery on Monday.

"During the filling process, we still need to have access to some of our air valves on the feeder main," Bouchart said.

"There will be some localized lane closures, but for the most part, it will be reopened on Monday."

Later this year, Bouchart said, two additional sites near Parkdale will be repaired. Some medium-term work needs to be done to ensure the system has redundancy.

"We don't anticipate any need for water restrictions in November when we do the next two repairs," Bouchart said.

"Part of the planning work we're doing right now is looking at how we can minimize the impacts as we continue that medium-term work."