Water construction projects, upgrades and repairs

Water Construction Projects, Upgrades and Repairs

The City of Calgary undertakes a variety of waterworks projects to: 

  • Operate and maintain the water and wastewater collection and distribution systems in Calgary.
  • Provide repairs and maintenance for more than 16,000 km of underground pipes for water, sanitary sewer and stormwater.
  • Upgrade Calgary's water infrastructure to help expand its capacity and ensure it can meet the demands of a growing City.
  • Conserve and protect our water resources.

Active projects

Northeast

Northwest

Southeast

Southwest

City wide programs

Below you will find more information about our construction projects as well as repairs and upgrades to improve Calgary's water, wastewater and stormwater systems.

Water Main Replacement Program

Background

The City of Calgary takes a proactive approach to protecting and replacing aging assets.

The water main replacement program reduces emergency water main breaks and service interruptions by replacing corroded mains with new PVC pipe and adding protection to reduce the rate of future corrosion.

Since 1980, this program has contributed to a 73 per cent decrease in the number of emergency water main repairs.

Schedule

Construction will take place between May and October at various locations throughout the city. Each water main replacement is expected to take 3-5 weeks to complete.

Actual completion time may vary depending on the condition of the soil, existing utilities, and weather. Nearby residents will receive notification of the work in their community prior to the work beginning.

Construction impacts

  • Regular working hours will be 7 a.m.–7 p.m. Monday to Saturday.
  • Temporary water service, and possible water shut offs for nearby buildings.
  • Temporary street parking restrictions and/or closures.
  • Vibrations due to compaction.
  • Additional traffic and congestion due to construction activities and vehicles; in particular, impact to accessing parts of back lanes.
  • Flaggers will be on-site to assist with access to parking lots.
  • Tree pruning may be required for the safety of workers and to protect trees from accidental damage.
  • If sidewalks, curbs and gutters need to be removed they will be repaired to original or better condition.

Work will be completed in phases to cover open trenches as quickly as possible. However, some residents may temporarily lose access to their driveways.

We will aim to provide temporary access to those driveways and move as quickly as possible to accommodate any impacted residents and/or businesses.

Temporary Water Service

Should it be necessary to disrupt water service, residents will be provided a temporary water supply. All affected customers will receive notice at least a day in advance. Please note that internal fire suppression systems will not work if a building is being supplied by a temporary water service.

For project information or questions for more information, contact 311 and ask about the water main replacement program.

Sanitary Main Replacement

Background

The City of Calgary takes a proactive approach to protecting and replacing aging assets.

The sanitary main replacement program replaces aging infrastructure to ensure the continued reliability of our wastewater collection system. 

Schedule

Construction will take place from April to October. Each sanitary main replacement is expected to take 2-4 weeks.

The length of construction can vary depending on the condition of the soil, existing utilities, and weather. Nearby residents will receive notification of the work in their community prior to the work beginning.

Construction impacts

  • There are no planned service disruptions. Should a service disruption be required, all affected customers will receive notice at least a day in advance.
  • Temporary street parking restrictions and/or closures.
  • Vibrations due to compaction.
  • Additional traffic and congestion due to construction activities and vehicles; in particular, impact to accessing parts of back lanes.
  • Flaggers will be on-site to assist with access to parking lots.
  • Tree pruning may be required for the safety of workers and to protect trees from accidental damage.
  • If sidewalks, curbs and gutters need to be removed they will be repaired to original or better condition.
  • Regular working hours will be 7 a.m.–7 p.m. Monday to Saturday.
  • If sidewalks, curbs and gutters need to be removed they will be repaired to original or better condition.

Work will be completed in phases to cover open trenches as quickly as possible. However, some residents may temporarily lose access to their driveways.

We will aim to provide temporary access to those driveways and move as quickly as possible to accommodate any impacted residents and/or businesses.

Sanitary Lateral Lining Program

Background

The Sanitary Lateral Lining Program is an innovative program that involves the installation of liners inside existing sanitary service pipes to extend the life of these assets. This trenchless process means that Water Services can rehabilitate the sanitary service lines without digging up streets and sidewalks.

The program will run in several communities from May to December this year.

This program is being administered by LiquiForce, a company based in Ontario that provides this service to other cities in North America.

Why this program is necessary

Aging sewer infrastructure in older communities in Calgary is vulnerable to tree root intrusions, sewage backups, and costly repairs.

The Sanitary Service Lining Program is a pilot to rehabilitate the existing pipe by using trenchless technology to install a liner.

This method is less costly overall and less disruptive to the community rather than traditional dig and replace methods.

What residents need to know

Three weeks before work starts on your street, you receive a notification from LiquiForce. On the day the work is being done on your street, LiquiForce will leave a flyer with affected homes 30 minutes before work begins.

Your sewer connection will be out of service for approximately two to three hours while crews install the lining. During this time, we ask that you minimize your water use, including flushing toilets, showering, using the dishwasher and washing machine. Crews from LiquiForce will come to your home 30 minutes before they start work to alert you of the outage.

Please be aware that you may experience smells like plastic or glue coming into your home from the sewer lines. This is temporary and the smell should fade quickly. Some residents with asthma or respiratory conditions could experience discomfort and may not wish to be present during the work.

A complete set of Material Safety Data Sheets can be made available from the City of Calgary upon request. If the smell persists, please call 311 to alert The City of the issue and someone will come to your home to help.

Sanitary & Storm Main Rehabilitation Program

The Sanitary & Storm Main Rehabilitation Program is an annual program that proactively replaces aging sewer infrastructure by using a trenchless construction method called CIPP (cured-in-place pipe).  This construction method involves installing a resin infused felt tube through the existing pipe that is then cured in place, forming the new pipe. After the pipe is fully cured, the connections to the pipe that service homes are reinstated using a specialized robotic cutter.

Schedule

Construction takes place throughout the year, mid-January to mid-December. Residents will receive a construction notice from our contractor at least 2 days before construction. The construction will take approximately 8 hours to complete. 

Watermain Anode Retrofit Program*

Background

The anode retrofit program is designed to extend the lifespan of the City’s underground metallic water infrastructure by attaching sacrificial anodes to the water main or service to reduce corrosion and overall service interruptions due to emergency repair work.

This proactive approach has proven to lower main break rates, is less costly, and less disruptive to the community rather than traditional dig and replace methods.

This process is minimally invasive and does not disrupt service (unless a leak is uncovered during excavation). A hole is cored above the watermain or service, fill material above the pipe is removed using high pressured water and suction.

Once the pipe is exposed, we attach an anode to the pipe to create an electrical potential difference which in turn causes the sacrificial anode to corrode instead of the watermain.

We then backfill and pave (If required). If conditions are good, this process can take approximately 2 hours to complete per anode.

Schedule

  • The program runs from May to November
  • We install 3000 anodes to older metallic infrastructure around the city per year
  • Crews can do around 30 holes (anodes) per day

Construction impacts

  • Possible temporary parking restriction and/or lane closures
  • Vibrations due to compaction.
  • Noise from coring machine and Hydrovac
  • Additional traffic and congestion due to construction activities and vehicles; particularly, impact accessing parts of back lanes and driveways.
  • Crews are respectful regarding blocked driveways/garages and can move anytime if required.

Accelerated Lead Pipe Removal Program

In Calgary, lead service connections ​were only used for a short period of time, primarily between 1939 and 1947, during World War II when copper was not readily available. Following the war, copper once again became the main material used for service lines.

The City is responsible for the water service line that extends from the water main up to the homeowner's property line. All pipes, solder and fittings on private property are the responsibility of the property owner.

Completed projects

Community drainage improvement program

The City's Community Drainage Improvements Program works to reduce overland flooding in areas throughout Calgary.

Drainage studies are undertaken to identify solutions for communities frequently affected by flooding due to extreme rainfall. These solutions can include adding additional storm drainage pipes, increasing the size of pipes, and adding wet or dry storm ponds to help manage stormwater. 

Local drainage improvements

The City’s Local Drainage Improvements (LDI) Program aims to better manage stormwater and avoid the pooling of stormwater and snow melt in localized areas throughout the city.

These improvements include replacing or upgrading storm drains (catchbasins), installation of additional storm pipes, surface regrading, and upgrading existing infrastructure to increase the flow of water into the system.

Current projects

Related links

  • Water outages and main breaks

    Find a list of current water outages and main breaks. If you see a water main break, please call 311.

  • Construction projects and road closures

    If you would like to know about residential road closures due to water construction or other activities

  • Storm ponds

    Learn about how the City maintains storm ponds to protect our rivers.


This information has no legal status and cannot be used as an official interpretation of the various bylaws, codes and regulations currently in effect. The City of Calgary accepts no responsibility to persons relying solely on this information. Web pages are updated periodically. ​

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