No timeline for Calgary water main fix; boil water advisory in place for some
City of Calgary officials say they have identified the location of what they are calling a second “catastrophic” water main break in the northwest in less than two years, but they do not have a timeline as to when it might be fixed.
Catastrophic is the most severe categorization of incidents, according to the city's risk assessment.
Firefighters and police responded Tuesday evening to significant flooding beneath the CPKC rail bridge near 69th Street N.W.
Thirteen people had to be rescued from eight vehicles that got caught in the torrent of water.
Josh Podulsky was one of those rescued. He was driving along 16th Avenue when he said the road "exploded."
He described seeing a massive water spout, and within seconds water levels began rapidly rising around him.
"It was pretty freaky," he said.
He was stranded for about an hour inside his vehicle before being lifted out by firefighters. Podulsky said he decided to stay put in his car after watching two people exit their vehicle and nearly get swept away.
"[My] car's done, I think. It's totalled, because the water was going over the windshield," Podulsky said.
The Calgary Fire Department searched seven cars to rescue 13 people following flooding in northwest Calgary. (Chris dela Torre/CBC)
The break on the Bearspaw south feeder main — the same source of the break in 2024 — happened around 8 p.m. Tuesday along 16th Avenue, east of its interchange with Sarcee Trail.
This break involved a section of pipe installed in 1975, and not the replacement pipe received from San Diego to repair the last break, the city said in an update Wednesday.
It happened due to a “rapid drop in pressure,” said Nancy Mackay, the city’s director of water services.
Water has now been shut off in the affected area.
Early Wednesday morning, the city issued boil water advisories for parts of Parkdale, Montgomery, Point McKay and West Hillhurst. Water wagons will be deployed to those communities.
Water remains safe to drink in the remainder of the city, said Susan Henry, chief of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency.
Stage 4 water restrictions are in place, which prohibits outdoor water use for things like flooding rinks or snow-making.
Calgarians are being asked to reduce their water usage by limiting showers to three minutes or less, flushing toilets only when necessary, and waiting to run dishwashers and washing machines until they are full.
Bowness resident Josh MacDonald spoke to CBC News from outside a Real Canadian Superstore near 16th Avenue and Sarcee Trail, where he said bottled water was already sold out.
Flooding in Bowness left cars submerged in water. (Submitted by Tony Terentev)
Police and firefighters responded to the flooding and stranded vehicles along 16th Avenue N.W., the same street where a catastrophic break occurred in June 2024.
No warning signs
Since the 2024 break, the Bearspaw south feeder main has been continuously monitored, but there were no warning signs before this latest break, the city says.
“The system was working normally at the time of the failure,” said Chris Graham with the city’s infrastructure department, who added there were no indications of any wire snaps in the lead-up to the failure.
Graham said the pipe was being continuously monitored with acoustic fibre optic equipment.
A former senior infrastructure engineer with Calgary's water department described the monitoring process as tiny microphones listening 24/7 for any activity.
Roy Brander said normally inspectors might hear a series of "pings" weeks or months apart, indicating wires snapping that could lead to a break.
"For the main to suddenly just rip open like a zipper is just an absolute jaw-dropper, and it's going to be one for the textbooks," said Brander, who retired in 2016.
City officials said it was too early to speak to the levels of chloride in the area at the time. Sodium chloride, a form of road salt, is believed to have played a factor in the 2024 break.
The early identification of the location of the break does, however, put the city "days ahead of what happened the previous time around,” Mayor Jeromy Farkas said.
Mackay said the pipe will need to be drained before digging can begin and the broken section replaced. Then the water will need to be refilled and tested to ensure its safety before the boil water advisory can be lifted.
She gave a timeline of seven to 10 days if there is only one repair to be made, but cautioned the city still needs to fully inspect the severity of the break.
“We go fast, but we don't go so fast that we're not protecting water quality,” Mackay said.
She said emergency adjustments have been made to distribute more water throughout the city from the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant, the smaller of Calgary's two plants — something she says was a lesson learned from the last go around.
‘Ticking time bomb’
Farkas said about 2,000 homes and 100 businesses have been affected.
“This is not the first time that this has happened. I think Calgarians are going to be asking a lot of questions,” he told CBC Radio’s Calgary Eyeopener.
While he acknowledged the frustrations, he said there are overarching issues that need to be addressed — chiefly installing a replacement line parallel to the current main.
Stranded vehicles on flooded Calgary highway due to a water main break on Dec. 31, 2025. (Braydon Morisseau/Freelancer)
“Until we completely replace the pipe, this is a ticking time bomb that Calgarians will continue to live with,” Farkas said at Wednesday’s media availability.
Farkas said he’s expecting the recommendations of an independent review of the 2024 water main break to be released in the coming weeks.
He said council is committed to implementing those recommendations so that a third major break does not happen.
Unlike in 2024, this break happened in the winter, when they're about twice as likely to occur as in the summer, according to Brander. He says that's because the soil around the pipes expands and contracts as temperatures fluctuate.
"The recent weather, which spiked down very cold and then very warm, is exactly the kind of thing that could have caused just a small soil movement," he said.
And inspections do not paint a full picture of what is happening with the soil around the pipe, Brander said.
"I think sometimes you do everything you can do and the universe just hates you and sends you some bad luck, and we're going to live and learn."
Thumbnail courtesy of Ty Chow/CBC.
This article, written by Jennifer Keiller, was originally published for CBC News. It contains files from Tony Seskus, Chelsey Mutter, Colleen Underwood and Nick Brizuela.
See below for more photos and videos of the ongoing flooding.
Car stuck on flooded Calgary highway due to a water main break on Dec. 31, 2025. (Connor O'Donovan/TWN)
People being rescued from a truck stuck in floodwaters on Calgary highway Dec. 31, 2025. (Submitted)
Van stuck in frozen floodwater on a Calgary highway due to a broken water main on Dec. 31, 2025. (Braydon Morisseau/Freelancer)
Truck stuck in rushing floodwater on Calgary highway on Dec. 31, 2025. (Connor O'Donovan/TWN)