What started out as a leaky valve turned into a road-closing flood.
Traffic was able to flow in both directions 10 hours after water main burst on Old Island Highway, June 7. Traffic was able to flow into Colwood at 4:30 p.m., but the other direction was not open until 10 p.m.
A geotechnical engineer is on scene assessing the road and help determine when it can be opened.
The road closed at 12:30 p.m. when the flood occurred. The valve was secured one hour later.
There is no water currently on the road.
It’s estimated 2,000 cubic metres of water was released at the 300 block of Island Highway, near Knollwood Road.
The leak occurred on a four-foot diameter water main.
“It doesn’t appear to have flooded any properties,” said Tim Tanton, CRD senior manager of infrastructure engineering. Tanton credits a natural “dip in the road” that helped pool the water.
CRD crews were able re-route water and all customers remained connected to water. CRD is also not concern the incident will affect water quality.
Last week CRD crews noticed a slight leak in the water main last week and were on-scene June 7 to repair it.
“It was on the main supply so you can’t turn it off (to fix the valve),” said Tanton explaining the crew were going to leave the old valve on and bolt a new valve on it. The water gushed out when the new valve was pressurized.
View Royal Fire Rescue, View Royal Public Works and View Royal Fire Department all arrived on scene.
More to come.
