Frigid temperatures breaking more Regina water mains

The extreme cold bearing down on Regina over the past few weeks has played havoc with quite a few people’s vehicles, but it’s also playing havoc with the City of Regina’s water mains.

According to the city’s manager of sewer and drainage operations, Helena Henning-Hill, the city has received calls for 44 water main breaks so far in February. Henning-Hill said the city is on track to beat the number from February 2018 — 48 — which she said is high anyway.

“The cold has driven the frost down quite far into the ground and that’s causing the challenges that we’re seeing right now,” said Henning-Hill.

A water main break in winter is bad anyway — closing down streets and leaving swaths of ice once it’s fixed. But Henning-Hill said it can cause problems for the neighbourhood in the spring.

“(It’s an issue) when the spring thaw starts to happen and the catch basins are now still frozen from the water that they’ve received from these breaks,” she said.

It’s no picnic for the crews who have to work on the breaks either.

“Working with such extreme cold temperatures, the equipment doesn’t work as well,” Henning-Hill said. “The staff themselves are dealing with water — you can imagine how cold it would be trying to work in those conditions.”

Henning-Hill expects the breaks to continue for a while yet, and she said the city is making sure there are enough workers on to handle them.