CORNWALL, Ontario – The City of Cornwall has deployed Urgent Response Command to the area of Vincent Massey Dr. and Tollgate Rd. in response to a series of watermain breaks.
The City is reporting that the area has experienced a series of breaks over the past several weeks with the most recent occurring on Thursday, Oct. 12.
The watermain breaks have caused extended water outages to the residents of Tollgate Rd. West.
“We regret the extended, repeated nature of these exceptional water service and traffic disruptions but we want to assure residents that we are mobilizing all resources to remedy these challenging repairs as soon as possible,” said John St. Marseille, Cornwall’s General Manager of Infrastructure & Municipal Works “We are also closely studying the cause of these breaks so that we can proactively and cost-effectively address and plan future watermain solutions – with minimal service disruption to our residents.”
The Urgent Response Command vehicle is at the Fairview Motel parking lot and will be providing bottled water to those who need it. The City is also allowing the affected residents to use the Benson Centre for showers and other related needs.
City Water Works crews were working to get the water back on by Thursday night. In the meantime, Vincent Massey will remain closed at Tollgate until Friday while repairs are made to the road.
Residents can obtain further information by contacting the Municipal Works Office at 613-932-5354.
This summer there were two major watermain breaks on Brookdale Ave. and on Sydney St.
There is 280 km of water pipes in Cornwall and that 70 km of that has aged to the point where they need to be replaced.
In all there is a backlog of about $40 million worth of watermains that need to be replaced. This year, Municipal Works hopes to replace $4 million worth of old watermains, but John St. Marseille has stated that this pace is not adequate to keep up with the rate that the pipes are aging.
