Cranbrook Public Works will employ new tactics to be proactive against water leaks this year after seeing a significant rise in emergency repairs in 2024.
In the last 12 months Public Works saw a 17 per cent increase in water infrastructure repairs compared to the year prior.
City officials say this is largely due to aging copper service lines, which have shown more corrosion in recent years.
“The big contributors are the flair fittings that were installed in the 70s, 80s and 90s. They’re at a point of failure and there may be some poor installation techniques employed when they were first put in,” explained Cranbrook’s Public Works Director Tony Hetu.
The City says the cost of repairing service line leaks and replacing the asphalt has risen by about $317,740 since 2022, with Public Works’ labour costs jumping by $76,320 in the same time frame.
“Despite the cost increases, the overall operational budget has remained stable, meaning resources are being reallocated from other maintenance programs,” said Hetu.
“This data we’ve collected will help us manage resources more effectively and work with Engineering to plan for future capital replacement programs in areas with increasing failures.”
Hetu says the Public Works team will take a new approach to tackling leaks around the city.
“We’ve purchased some more modern leak detection equipment. The plan is to do more proactive repairs,” said Hetu.
“We’re going to start heading out into the field, laying out the leak detection monitors to try to find them and doing planned repairs.”
This approach will allow crews to be more precise and targeted in their repair work. It also allows staff to fix failing lines before they become emergencies.
“Searching for water main breaks proactively will allow us to dig in the summer months when we have better weather and we can plan for it,” said Hetu.
“The other part is that we likely won’t have to dig such big holes, which means less replacement of the pavements and the materials under it. Each individual dig should cost less, but we might be planning more digs, so we will be utilizing some capital funds to support that program.”
Outside of water line repairs, the city’s Public Works crew also saw a 108 per cent increase in sidewalk repairs in 2024, but trip hazards were not fully addressed due to reliance on an outside contractor.
“Other road-related metrics, such as patching and asphalt repairs, showed slight increases,” said the City of Cranbrook.
“Service requests rose by 71 per cent, largely driven by 566 garbage bin size inquiries during the automated collection rollout, along with water infractions, dead animal reports, pothole notifications, and snow removal requests.”
The City says Public Works saw an increase in jobs across the community.
“Work orders rose by 32 per cent, especially in Parks, to better track maintenance costs,” said the City.
“The team inventoried 2,242 street sign and parks assets, added to the City’s asset management software, and inspected 136 streetlights, up 14% from 2023.”
You can see a full breakdown of the 2024 Public Works report here.
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