Harsh winter taking toll on Stouffville water mains

Toronto's record year for repairs appreciated in town

Stouffville Sun-Tribune
March 13, 2014
By Jim Mason

A crew worked to stop a stream running down Commercial Street in Stouffville this afternoon.

That's not news to the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville and its public works employees.

A broken water main on the laneway of a street, that runs north of Main Street between Mill and Church streets, was their second this week and the eighth of 2014. The first was on Main, across from Summitview Public School.

The town budgets for 12 each calendar year.

The older section of Stouffville has been hardest hit.

In all of 2013, there were four broken mains.

This has not been last winter.

"Mother nature has thrown everything at us," Paul Whitehouse, the municipality's director of public works, said this afternoon.

The list includes extreme cold, high winds, an ice storm and unusually large amounts of snow.

Throw in rapidly changing temps and the frost heaves quickly, leading to damage. As the ground freezes, it expands, putting pressuring on the pipes.

"The ideal spring is gradual," he said. "Long warm spells mean the frost comes out in a hurry."

The carnage isn't limited to the water pipes buried under our streets. The road surface itself takes a beating under extremes, too.

Right now, that frost runs five feet deep.

Municipalities south of Stouffville, including those in southern York Region, have been hit even harder this winter, Mr. Whitehouse said. Toronto is having its worst year for water main breaks in 20 years.

It takes about a day to mend a broken pipe here. Paving is sometimes delayed until the weather warms even more.

Water has to be shut off to neighbouring customers, which can be dicey if they require the service constantly, like medical and dental centres.

"It's not a lot of fun, especially when it's super cold," he said. "But it's all in a day's work."