Water main break brings ice, slush and flooding to Saskatoon’s Erindale neighbourhood

Last week’s extreme cold could have contributed to water main break in Saskatoon’s Erindale neighbourhood.

Russ Munro, director of Saskatoon water with the City of Saskatoon, said the city responded to the scene along Kerr Road between Berini Drive and Gillam Crescent on Monday morning for what is suspected to have been a water main break.

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“When we say break, often, what we mean is some kind of service disruption,” Munro explained.

He said the crew will go out to do an isolation on the site and then later in the day, a repair crew will respond.

“We won’t know for sure what the cause is until we, in fact, dig the street up and have an opportunity to have a look and see,” Munro said. He noted, however, that the volume of water does seem like the problem is likely to be a break rather than a small service connection or valve issue.

In 2025, Saskatoon saw a nearly record-low number of breaks at 174. The record for the city remains at 171.

Last month, there were 27 water main breaks, when the typical number might be around 28. Munro said the five-year average for the month of January is around 25.

Munro said this is keeping with a trend of reduced water main breaks in the city, which he credits to investments in water main repairs, asset rehabilitation and asset preservation from city council.

Weather can have a huge impact on the number of water main breaks, too.

“If we have sudden cold snaps, things like that, we will see a trend sort of up and down, but the overall average over time is going down,” Munro said.

Temperature swings — like the 30-degree fluctuations parts of the province have seen twice now this winter, going from deep-freeze to warmer-than-average temperatures — also can impact water mains.

Munro said the amount of snow on the ground can impact how insulated water mains are and lessen the impact of temperature swings on the ground.

“The worst case scenario for us is if there is no snow, and then it’s really cold, all of a sudden, we’ll get that frost penetration to happen quickly, and that’s when we’ll start to see an increase (in water main breaks),” Munro said.

The majority of water main breaks do happen in the winter, though ground movement, changes in the amount of water in soil and pressure events can also trigger water main breaks any time of year.

However, even with these major weather transitions, Munro said the city is on track with last year’s lower numbers once again.

Explaining the repair process, Munro said major breaks will be identified by water treatment plant staff before anyone else. Seeing a pressure drop, staff will respond and alert waste operations crews and drinking water advisories will be issued to affected residents and businesses.

On Monday morning, residents in the Kerr Road and Bernini Drive area were issued door hangers, letting them know that water for their area had been turned off.

The break will then be isolated to the damaged sections of pipeline. When repairs are minor, sometimes crews will use technology akin to sonar to echo locate where a water main break might be.

Crews will then excavate down to the main line and several techniques can be used to repair damage. Munro said crews might cut out a chunk of pipe and replace it or perhaps use a special pipe saddle that can be attached to repair the pipe.

Once repaired, the main line is flushed to ensure the fix will hold, and two samples are collected, 24 hours apart, to check for any sort of bacteria and maintain a chloramine inside of the city’s entire distribution system. These signs indicate the water is safe.

After the accredited laboratory testing, drinking water advisories are taken down or replaced with green door hangers in the neighbourhood, alerting residents that they can return to enjoying their water usage as normal. The street is back filled with gravel after the repair before an asphalt repair is done on top of where the concrete was cut.

Should a break happen in the winter, crews will return to the area in warmer months for that final repair step.

Munro said it’s hard to prevent individual water main breaks with a system-wide management process in place.

“We can’t necessarily predict, on your street, is there going to be a water main break?” Munro said.

Asset preservation, however, can help review previous breaks and pipes that may have a history of repairs, examine various materials and assess where breaks may be more likely to happen.

The city will invest in things like pipe lining, as well — putting a sleeve inside some of the older cast iron pipes and building a plastic pipe inside of that pipe in the ground.

Proactive replacements can also be a part of that process, if prior repairs or weakness is noted, or if road work is already happening and it might make sense for the city to complete the work at the same time.