A water main on Industrial Road has been fixed with water services back in full to area businesses after the leak was discovered Tuesday morning.

David Albisser, the city’s manager of water and waste services, said this morning the failure became evident at around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday when staff noticed water flowing down Industrial Road near the Yukon Pump building.

The evidence came as staff were investigating high flow alarms coming into the booster station earlier in the morning.

Once it was learned where the problem was, crews were on the scene and contacting ATCO Yukon Electric and Northwestel Inc. about digging in the area.

Within an hour, it was clear there were no underground utilities in danger of being struck. Also on the scene to ensure a temporary water hookup was safe were officials from the territorial environmental health branch.

Once the crew – made up of about 18 staff at full capacity – had the go-ahead, work began.

As Albisser explained, in 2011, the city twinned its water main for Industrial.

At the time, there weren’t any issues with the older main, which had been installed in 1965, at a time when Industrial Road was named Robert Service Road, Albisser said.

Small pockets of corrosion in the main led to the leak, he said.

Crews were able to run a temporary line from fire hydrants to businesses on Quartz Road in the area, with affected businesses on Industrial Road also coming back online by tying into other sources in the afternoon.

“It was a really short time they (were without water),” Albisser said, noting the city’s reluctance to shut down water services unless it’s absolutely necessary.

As crews continued to work on the main, a traffic control station was set up with a staffer directing traffic around the scene using pylons to mark out where vehicles could go.

“We fully kept traffic flowing,” he said.

Crews remained at work until 1:30 this morning, when it was fully repaired. By that point, city staffing numbers were down to about a half-dozen on the scene.

While the full costs of the repairs aren’t known yet, Albisser estimated them to be between $7,000 and $10,000, given the equipment and staffing needed for the job over the course of the day.

Albisser praised both the city staff who worked on the repairs, Northwestel, ATCO and environmental health workers who got to the scene quickly to ensure it was safe to go ahead with the dig and that temporary water lines would deliver safe water.