Water main break in Orléans prompts calls for new roadways

For the second time in two days, City of Ottawa crews responded to a water main break. CTV’s Austin Lee reports on the broken pipe in Orléans.

A water main break on Innes Road in Ottawa’s east-end sent water gushing into the street, forcing the temporary closure of the busy roadway on Tuesday.

Few nearby residents and businesses were impacted, but one auto detailing shop, Factory Detailing, was left without water.

“Most of our customers we had to rebook for another day. Some cancelled, but it is what it is,” said Abdul Al-Sherifi, manager of Factory Detailing.

“They said it would take several hours for them to finish the job, which is reasonable considering how bad it was.”

The cause of the water main break is unclear.

Matthew Luloff, Orléans East-Cumberland councillor and member of the city’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, says Ottawa is in a unique position when it comes to managing and maintaining the city’s infrastructure.

“We are an amalgam of over a dozen municipalities, and this spans almost 200 years of different kinds of infrastructure, different kinds of piping,” he said.

“What we have here in the old City of Gloucester is steel piping. The City of Ottawa experiences a 40-degree swing in temperature in some years, and so, that’s a lot of movement on steel. The City of Ottawa now uses PVC piping which is a heck of a lot more flexible.”

One lane traffic in each direction resumed along Innes Road by Tuesday afternoon, but Luloff says the situation serves as a reminder of the need for more routes connecting the city’s east-end to the rest of the city.

“We are going to continue pushing for an alternate way to the south to get people in and out of the community. This wouldn’t be such a big deal in the west-end, because there are several different ways in and out of the community,” said Luloff.

“We essentially have Innes Road, which is over capacity, we have the 174 which is at capacity, and no other real viable way out of our community. We need to see the Brian Coburn Boulevard extension as far as possible, and we need to be looking at a ring road.”

Hazeldean Road reopens after massive water main break

Cleanup continues in Kanata’s Glen Cairn neighbourhood following a significant water main break Monday morning that flooded streets, parking lots and nearby businesses.

The Bank of Montreal remains closed, and residents are still awaiting an update on how long the water main repair will take, but the area councillor says some progress has been made.

The concrete median in front of the Van Leeuwen Centre has been ripped up to allow for cars to flow along Hazeldean Road once again.

“The good news we have is that the detour is in place that is just on Hazeldean Road. Instead of being four lanes, it’s down to two lanes, but it’s going in both directions. That really supports the local businesses,” said Kanata South councillor Allan Hubley.

“There was a lot of people that were experiencing a significant drop in water pressure, but that should all be resolved. There is a notice for, I think, four buildings that have been asked to boil their water just to be safe until we get the system flushed. That could end any time.”

The cause of the water main break in Kanata is also still unknown.

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