Kincardine council approves watermain replacement on Durham Market South

Kincardine council has approved spending $48,000 to replace the watermain on Durham Market South in Kincardine.

In committee-of-the-whole last night (March 18), council heard from operations manager Don Huston who said that the extreme cold weather caused the watermain to freeze. Crews have been working on it since last Friday but attempts at repairing it are in vain.

"We need to replace that old four-inch pipe with a new six-inch main," said Huston, "but the cost is significant."

The new main will be six-inch plastic piping, said councillor Laura Haight, policy chairperson of planning.

Huston said there have been some interesting "finds" as crews dug up old pipes to thaw them out and restore water service to households in Kincardine. One on Broadway turned up some old two-inch lead pipe, he said. "There are a lot of unknowns under the ground. We have some galvanized steel service lines which are a problem as well."

Councillor Mike Leggett asked if the new watermain on Durham Market South would be buried deeper than the current line.

"Yes," said Huston. "It will be six feet deep, two feet deeper than what's there now."

He told council the quote from Omega Contractors of London, to replace the watermain on Durham Market South, from Queen Street to Princes Street, sets the price at $48,000 plus tax.

"Are you going to insulate the line?" asked councillor Randy Roppel.

Huston said the insulation would be a rigid sheet of plastic on top of the watermain.

He said 133 water services were frozen this winter, with the most recent one reported Tuesday. Of those, 108 have been thawed, with 25 still without water. Of those 25, nine can't be thawed, five are hooked up to a neighbour's water, and 11 have yet to be dug up.

Huston urged residents to continue to run taps in their homes to prevent frozen waterlines, until notified by the municipality.

Committee-of-the-whole agreed with replacing the watermain on Durham Market South, with the procurement of a contractor moved to the Best Value Purchasing Process in the municipal purchasing and procurement policy.
Staff is to proceed with the work as soon as possible, with money for this project coming form the water reserve fund.

This was later approved in council session.