Cold weather blamed for multiple watermain breaks in Kitchener

Cold weather challenges in Waterloo Region Warming centres are open during the day, but finding an overnight option is a challenge for the unhoused population. Colton Wiens reports.

The frigid winter weather is taking a toll on some city’s infrastructure.

In Kitchener, city crews were called to four separate watermain breaks over a 24-hour period.

Three of them – on Bloomingdale Road, Tanglewood Avenue and 228 Kenneth Avenue – were cold-weather related. The fourth, on Fairway Road North, was a water service leak.

“As we get colder and colder, and as the frost creeps into the ground we get a lot of movement,” explained Tammer Gaber, the manager of operations for Kitchener Utilities.

That contraction and expansion is where the problem begins.

“If there are any weak spots in watermains, they will tend to break,” Gaber said.

Crews, equipment and materials are always ready to be dispatched to a watermain break and it can take several hours to dig down to the pipe, then clamp it and repave the road during the cold winter months.

Gaber said some of the pipes date back to the 1950’s and, while breaks happen every winter, recent infrastructure investments have reduced the frequency.