The stretch of St. Anne Street in front of St. Albert Place could be closed for a few weeks.
A sinkhole appeared in the road Monday. It was the first sign of a water main break that resulted in the closure of St. Anne Street between St. Thomas and Perron streets.
St. Albert Place was evacuated Monday and closed until Wednesday morning because the water was turned off, shutting down the sprinkler system and plumbing.
“Essentially over 5,000 cubic metres of water had washed underneath that roadway, which had created a void … and saturated the ground,” said utilities manager Brian Brost.
City hall and the St. Albert library and museum were all open for business Wednesday, but people were told not to drink the water until test results were received from a provincial laboratory. Brost said those results were received Thursday afternoon and the water is now cleared for regular use.
But while operations in St. Albert Place are back to normal, Brost said work on St. Anne Street will continue over the coming weeks.
Those repairs included removing soil that’s saturated with water.
“We have to haul all that wet soil away and bring in dry,” Brost said. Then they need to compact the ground so it won’t settle further once covered with asphalt.
“Fix it now and repair it properly instead of continually seeing a sag or depression across that roadway,” Brost said.
