All clear: Fredericton crews brave extreme cold to repair burst water main
Elizabeth Fraser | CBC News | Posted: December 28, 2017 2:14 PM | Last Updated: December 28, 2017
City crews have repaired the break that shuttered a section of Riverside Drive on Thursday
A road on Fredericton's north side has reopened after water and sewer crews repaired a water main in the extreme cold Thursday.
A pipe burst at about 2 a.m. on Riverside Drive in front of the Fort Nashwaak Motel. Utility crews spent the day repairing the break.
"This time of year, once the frost starts to sit in the ground, starts to move in … the ground will just move and some of the older pipes, cast iron, there's no give to it," said Dave Cass, a systems operator with the city. "Once it moves a bit [pipes] will snap."
To get to the pipe Thursday morning, crews had to break up the pavement — through frost — with the help of a hydraulic hammer. Once they broke through, an excavator bucket was used to get to the main.
The work was completed before 3 p.m.
"This was a substantial effort to get this fixed given the weather conditions, so we are very appreciative of people's patience as we work to get things back to normal," said Scott Grasman, assistant manager of Fredericton's water and sewer division.
About 80 per cent of the breaks are circumferential, meaning a break around the pipe. This can be repaired with a clamp. If it's a longitudinal crack, the pipe has to be replaced.
The latter is a much longer process and requires shutting off the water.
Not the first time
Cass said there had already been four water main breaks across the city before the Christmas holidays.
"Now we have these deep cold temperatures starting to set in, so everything is starting to move," he said.
He said the water main break affected a small number of people in the area and the restaurant inside the north side hotel.
Motorists were encouraged to use Greenwood Drive and Route 8.
Grasman said the piece of Riverside Drive between the Princess Margaret Bridge and the Fort Nashwaak Motel, contains 1950s and '60s cast iron pipes that have little flexibility.
He said many of the water pipes installed then had less iron in them, too, since post-war iron was more difficult to get.
A problem area
Grasman said Riverside Drive is a problem area, and at least five of the 29 breaks this year happened on that road.
About 61 per cent, or 256 kilometres of pipe, in the city's water distribution system is cast iron, Grasman said.
When pipes are replaced, they are replaced with ductile iron, which is more flexible. The city has been using that kind of piping since 1972 and has yet to see a natural failure with it.
Environment Canada said cold temperatures combined with moderate to strong westerly winds would give wind chill values of between –30 C and –35 C on Thursday morning.