A major route into downtown Vancouver will experience lane closures this weekend to repair a broken water main that is leaking hundreds of thousands of litres daily in Stanley Park.
The Stanley Park Causeway will be reduced to a single lane southbound starting at 8 p.m. Friday and continue throughout the weekend.
Crews hope to have the job finished 5 a.m. Monday morning, and the lanes will re-open.
Extra congestion is expected on the Second Narrows Bridge.
Officials said the break is estimated to be spilling 430,000 litres of chlorinated water a day, which is flowing into Lost Lagoon. The water main supplies half of Vancouver with its drinking water.
But crews are de-chlorinating, testing and monitoring the water to ensure chlorine doesn’t reach the artificial lake, Metro Vancouver spokesman Greg Valou said.
Witnesses told CTV News they have seen the water spilling for several weeks. It’s unclear exactly when the leak started, but workers pinpointed the exact location over the weekend and are preparing to repair the problem.
“The next phase of repair will take place as soon as possible and will likely involve welding a steel plate to the water main around the location of the leak. The actual conditions will dictate the nature of the repair,” Valou told CTV News in an email.
“We are working with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to minimize traffic impacts.”
The pipe, which feeds water to the west side of Vancouver, was installed in the 1930s and “has not been problematic,” Valou added.
Metro Vancouver uses about 1.5 billion litres of water daily, officials said. The cost of the water being spilled is about $300 a day.
