Replacement for Calgary’s failing feeder main on time, on budget: City
Posted Jul 23, 2026 6:11 pm.
The replacement line for Calgary’s failing Bearspaw South Feeder Main is on schedule and on budget, so far, according to city officials.
The line was accelerated at the start of the year following a second catastrophic burst to the BPSFM on December 30th.
Now, city crews are saying that things are on schedule to have this line operational come December.
“Steel pipe started to arrive on June 18th of this year and approx. 30 per cent of almost six km of steel pipe has been installed to date,” said Michael Thompson, the COO of water utility for the City of Calgary.
The project is within the allocated budget at this point, but when asked if newly announced tariffs from the United States and possible retaliation could bring escalating costs, Thompson says, “all major materials” have already been procured, but didn’t rule out possible impact as this pipe inches closer to completion.
“Until the project is operational and in service, we have lots of risks that we’re tracking. Geopolitical would be one of them; supply chain is another one,” said Thompson.
He says concrete pipe has been fabricated in Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia, and that the majority of steel has come from Mexico, with the remainder coming from the United States. He says the city will be looking for Canadian steel pipe suppliers moving forward, but the urgency of this project and amount of pipe needed left them no choice but to work with companies they’ve already used.
On the ground, more than 100 workers are continuing the work of securing stable, reliable water for Calgarians, as the city still faces the risk that, at any moment, the feeder main could see a catastrophic burst for the third time.
“It’s going very good. A lot of the crew are from around here, and a lot of the crews came from somewhere else just to support this project,” said Darren Finney, the manager of Major Projects and Utilities Delivery for the City of Calgary.
Looking into the fall, the city expects a four-week stint of Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions around mid-October, when the new pipe is tied into the existing system.
In the meantime, Calgarians are asked to keep their rain barrels topped up to help reduce pressure on the system if the original pipe fails before that December target.
