Montreal believed pipe that burst had another 10-15 years before needing to be repaired

Days after the massive water main break near downtown Montreal, which created a geyser near the Jacques Cartier Bridge and flooded streets, homes and businesses nearby, the city is providing more insight into the 84-inch pipe that burst on Aug. 16.

The city says the pipe had suffered corrosion over the years, but thought there was still time before it needed to be repaired. They expected it to last another 10 to 15 years.

“We always wanna make sure that we act, that we have time to plan the repair and we are not doing it in an emergency like we’ll have to do this time,” said Chantal Morissette, the director of the Water Department.

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On Tuesday, officials added the network has about 150 kilometres of this kind of pipe — 40 kilometres of which has been reinforced — leaving 110 kilometres of the supply more vulnerable.

“We decide the frequency of the inspection based also on the result of the previous inspection. So it’s all a dynamic system where we inspect one pipe and then we analyze, we take a decision and then we decide in how many years we’re gonna do the next inspection based on the result of that specific pipe,” explained Morissette.

Calgary experienced a similar water break in June, and the city implemented something called continuous acoustic monitoring of the pipes in the affected area.

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“We have a contract that will be authorized in a month maybe. Within this contract, there’s three different techniques. That technique is one of them that we will be able to use very soon.”

The City of Montreal is awaiting the results of the inspection of the pipe before making any changes to the network.

“We’ll see if the result that we get is only, it’s a specific condition for that pipe where it broke, or if it can be extrapolated to other pipes, of course we will change our program,” said Morissette.