SUNDRE – A crew is endeavouring to locate and repair a suspected watermain leak near the schools in Sundre before students return to class on Monday.
“We’ve got a potential watermain break that has been causing us some issues on our daily flows,” said Jim Hall, Sundre’s operations manager.
Residents might have noticed an excavator on 2nd Avenue NW on the road between the Sundre Arena and the Sundre Community Centre.
“We’re hoping to have (the work) wrapped up by Sunday prior to school coming in next week,” said Hall, adding municipal staff worked in tandem with a contractor called AIC Construction throughout the holiday season in an attempt to find the source.
“It was very difficult with the conditions we had to test many sections of town to find it,” he said, adding electronic devices known as correlators were used in a process that involves using two or more sensors that are placed in contact with a pipe on both sides of the suspected leak.
“They sit on top of valves and they only listen for water noises,” he said, adding other sources of sound such as for example passing traffic does not impact the tests.
Hall could not yet estimate the cost of the repair.
“The conditions are horrible with the frost, so it’ll be generally more than it would be in the summer,” he said.
