The pipe that burst last Friday in downtown Montreal had the best possible condition rating, but its steel reinforcement was compromised, the City of Montreal revealed Tuesday.
An inspection carried out in 2018 revealed that 35 of the 510 steel cables were broken around the six-metre-long pipe, indicated the director of the city’s water department, Chantal Morissette, at a press briefing.
This finding led to additional analyses, which concluded that replacement work would need to be carried out within 10 to 15 years.
“It is clear that the driving deteriorated much more quickly than anticipated,” said the official. “This driving will be the subject of an in-depth diagnosis so that we can understand what may have caused this advanced deterioration.”
PHOTO GRAHAM HUGHES, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Montreal has 110 kilometres of pipes identical to the one that broke on Friday, with a greater or lesser number of broken cables depending on the sector.
“The 35 broken cables is really not a magic number,” she continued. “Rest assured that if we have auscultation results that show us that there is a risk of breakage – it doesn’t matter how many cables [brisés] – we stop driving immediately.”
The pipe that gave way on Friday actually had an “A” deterioration rating, as The Press reported it this morning, said Mr.me Morissette. But this indicator only takes into account the age of the structure and the number of breakages it has suffered.
Montreal has 110 kilometres of pipes identical to the one that broke on Friday, with a greater or lesser number of broken cables depending on the sector. “We are doing everything we can to prevent this from happening [à nouveau]but zero risk does not exist,” she added.
Aref Salem, the leader of the opposition on Montreal city council, said he was “very concerned” about the possibility of another water main break occurring on a similar line. Citizens, “if it’s not nature that’s flooding them, it’s the city of Montreal that’s flooding them,” he said.