Repairs are underway in Montreal after a major water main break last week sent a geyser into the air – that at its peak it was shooting 10 metres high – near the Jacques-Cartier bridge area at René-Lévesque Blvd. and de Lorimier Ave.
Homes and businesses were flooded and power cut to thousands. About 16 families are still being helped by the Red Cross, as they aren’t able to reintegrate into their homes.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante held a press conference on Monday to update the situation. She said the repair work will take time, the roads need fixing, a specific piece they need will take weeks to get – and Montrealers need to be patient.
“Sometimes construction sites are not fun, but it is necessary,” she said, hoping that the population would be more understanding about the traffic it will cause.
It all started around 6 a.m. on Friday, with water gushing into the streets, at times, waist-high. By around 11:36 a.m. the main had been capped.
A preventative boil-water advisory was sent out for some boroughs, that lasted until Saturday night – impacting about 150,000 homes.
The city said it will take weeks to fix the 84-inch pipe that erupted and it’s still unclear what triggered the nearly 40-year-old pipe to break.
But the city did add that the pipe had been “under surveillance” – but did not give further details on that yet.
The mayor explained that city has been upgrading the water network. “It is absolutely necessary and knowing it’ll reduce by 50 per cent the number of incidents gives me the kind of courage and willingness to do more,” Plante added.
A 2019 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card found that 30 per cent of water infrastructure in the country is in fair, poor or very poor condition. Montreal is not the only city dealing with this issue. Two months ago, a water main break also flooded parts of Calgary.
