Water line breaks have been keeping City of Merritt public works crews busy this month.
On Wednesday of last week, crews were working on a leak in the line underneath Nicola Avenue. As they turned the water back on after the repair, another leak sprung up further along the pipe, which they headed out to repair the next day.
City workers faced much more water on Sunday, May 4, when they were called to a water main break on Armstrong Street in the city’s east end.
Public works superintendent Darrell Finnigan was in Kamloops when he got the call about the break and the resulting flood.
Armstrong Street resident Gordon Swan said city crews got the water main shut off within an hour of being notified, and added he appreciated their response on a Sunday.
Swan said residents of the street waded through the water to help clear the storm drains so the water could drain from the street and workers could repair the water line.
When the water had receded enough, crews used the city’s vacuum truck to dig out a four-by-four hole to send a worker down to check on the break.
Finnigan said it was a clean break of the pipe, but couldn’t say with certainty what might have caused it.
Most likely, it was the result of a combinations of factors, Finnigan said, including the less-than-ideal road bed.
“Up there is a little unique because it is clay mixed with granular-type rock, so it does not make a great bed for water lines or roads,” Finnigan said.
That road bed as Swan concerned for future breaks.
Residents in the Armstrong Street area helped clear storm drains during flooding on May 4. Submitted
He said in his experience, there is an issue with the street’s infrastructure every three or so years.
Swan, who has lived on Armstrong since 1988, said the road has heaving as well as patches from where it’s been dug up and repaired.
“It doesn’t seem that the substructure is able to do what was envisioned in the ’70s,” Swan said.
Finnigan said that area seems prone to water main breaks, but breaks aren’t unique to the area either.
“Not unlike any municipality, the main part of our water structure went in about the ’60s, so the pipes are getting to that age. Some areas, you’ll dig it up and the pipes from the ’60s look brand new, and in some areas it looks like Swiss cheese.”
Finnigan said freezing and thawing of the ground could play a role as well.
He said that degradation of pipes can also be affected by soil condition, and some areas have what’s considered “hot soil” that actually corrodes the pipes.
The city’s plan in its 2014 budget and five-year financial plan is to do water and sewer replacements and asphalt rehabilitation at the same time so that a road isn’t resurfaced and then dug up again to replace the water line soon after, Finnigan said.
“Standards were a little bit different back then, and it’s something we’ve got to live with for now until we get to the point where we have to replace it, and then we’ll do it properly,” he said.
“It’s all a balancing act between budget and priorities.”
While Finnigan said he can’t pinpoint a time when the infrastructure on Armstrong Street may be replaced, Swan said he thinks that time has come.
“I think it’s something they need to look at in their budget deliberations and go, you know, something’s happening up there and get it into their budget books and say after 20-some years, it’s time to deal with it.”
