Bearspaw Water Main: Four-Week Shutdown Starts March 9

CALGARY, AB — The taps are tightening again. The City of Calgary announced today that the Bearspaw Water Main will shut down March 9 for four weeks of planned reinforcement work, triggering another round of water restrictions for residents and businesses.

Six segments of pipe will be reinforced during the shutdown, part of the city's urgent effort to stabilize the aging feeder main that has ruptured twice in eight months. The work is tied to the broader $1.2 billion, 10-year repair plan for Calgary's water infrastructure.

What This Means for Residents

Calgarians should prepare for the return of outdoor water restrictions and indoor conservation measures starting March 9. The city has committed to providing regular updates on calgary.ca throughout the four-week period.

Ward 4 Councillor Kelly confirmed the announcement on social media, noting that the shutdown is a necessary step in preventing future catastrophic failures.

The Bearspaw Backstory

The Bearspaw South Feeder Main first burst on June 5, 2024, forcing Stage 4 water restrictions for nearly four months. It failed again on December 30, 2025, leading to more than two weeks of emergency measures.

An Independent Review Panel, chaired by Siegfried Kiefer, found that the city had known about the risk of failure in this type of pipe — prestressed concrete cylinder pipe — since 2004 but de-prioritized mitigation. The panel's January 2026 report pointed to aging infrastructure and systemic gaps in governance and risk management.

The Replacement Timeline

The city is fast-tracking construction of a parallel steel replacement pipe, now expected to be complete by December 2026 — two years ahead of the original 2028 estimate. Stage A construction, using microtunnelling, began site setup on January 23, 2026. Stage B, using an open-cut method, is slated to begin in May 2026.

Ward & Burke Microtunnelling and Graham Construction & Engineering were awarded the contract. Calgary is investing more than $1.1 billion into water infrastructure in 2026 alone, supported by over $1 billion in borrowing approved by City Council in November 2024.

The Spending Gap

Ward 12 Councillor Mike Jamieson raised concerns earlier this month, citing data showing the city consistently underspent its multimillion-dollar water infrastructure budget from 2003 to 2024, only hitting it in 2016 and 2024.

The March 9 shutdown is the latest chapter in a long overdue infrastructure reckoning.