Calgarians urged to keep up water conservation; 16 Avenue reopens as feeder main prepares for flushing

City of Calgary officials warned residents about letting up on their conservation efforts at Friday's afternoon update regarding ongoing feeder main repairs and water restrictions.

Water usage saw a spike the day before, to 500 million litres -- the highest it's been since the main failed earlier this month.

According to the city, remaining at less than 480 million litres is imperative.

"We are currently in a vulnerable state. If water consumption continues on the current trend-line we're on, we may be putting lives at risk," said Sue Henry, Calgary Emergency Management Agency chief.

"Hospitals may have water shortages and fires may not be able to be put out.

"Now is not the time to take our foot off the brake with reducing water consumption. We are asking Calgarians to do their part to make every drop count. We're all hopeful that the finish line is not far off."

The stretch of 16 Avenue N.W. where the main first burst in Montgomery fully reopened Thursday night.

All lanes of traffic are now freely flowing between Home Road and 43 Street N.W., but the sidewalk is still closed.

While the reopening is welcome to many who commute in the area, as of Friday morning, 16 Avenue as it crosses over Shaganappi Trail remains closed.

The city says crews are working to finish up paving and are getting ready to move on to the next step, flushing the system, this weekend.

To facilitate flushing the water from the feeder line into the Bow River, the city has closed the north parking lot of Edworthy Park and the pathway system near the river until further notice.

It's the lowest point of that underground line so gravity does part of the work to flush it there.

Michael Thompson, the city's infrastructure general manager, hopes it will go quickly but warns this is where things could start to go wrong again.

He says starting and stopping the flushing creates pressure changes, adding a risk of more breaks.

"This is a risky phase. In the event there is an issue, we have contingency plans in place," he said.

"We have prepared spare pipe material and it is ready to be installed if needed, equipment remains on site and we have a rapid response plan to ensure staff and contractors can get to the site urgently if required."

The city says this is a necessary and critical stage in moving toward lifting water restrictions, saying if all goes as hoped, restrictions could begin to be lifted starting Monday.

City services remain closed at this time

While 16 Avenue is open, the city says many facilities will remain closed until water restrictions are fully lifted in the City of Calgary.

Those include wading pools, spray parks, pools, showers and ice rinks.

"We recognize there has been lots of uncertainty around city-operated recreation service disruptions and we want to keep customers informed," said Calgary's recreation and social programs team.

"While we cannot provide a definite timeline as to when we will reopen, we remain optimistic and hope to resume full programming soon."

Officials say they will do all they can to make sure scheduled lessons and other programs go ahead as scheduled and anything booked to begin after July 2 is not cancelled.

"We may need to adjust start dates based on when water service is restored. If the start date to a registered program is delayed, customers will be notified by email," the city said.

"If we need to cancel a registered program or booking, customers will be notified by email."

With files from Kevin Green and Alesia Fieldberg