The end of the latest round of water restrictions in Calgary is in sight, but officials say the city isn’t out of the woods just yet.

Officials announced Thursday the city is preparing to refill the Bearspaw feeder main and for the next steps needed to bring the pipe back into service.

The news comes after the city backfilled the Bearspaw’s nine reinforced pipe segments, with crews now preparing to repave road sections that were excavated for the construction work.

Construction crews will begin slowly refilling the pipe on Friday, which will require 22 million litres across two to three days.

The water to complete this task will come from the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant, the city said, which will raise Calgary’s overall water demand. But it does not put additional strain on the Glenmore Plant that the city has been relying on more heavily through the Bearspaw shutdown.

Once the Bearspaw is filled, the city’s next steps are to test water samples to confirm its safety to drink. Upon confirmation, the city can then reconnect the feeder main to the rest of its water system.

“We are in a position where the end is in sight,” said Mayor Jeromy Farkas on Thursday.

“We’re not out of the woods just yet. These repairs, while nearly complete, are still underway.”

The current water restrictions on Calgarians began earlier this month while the city shut down the Bearspaw to reinforce the pipe.

At the same time, work is ongoing to build a replacement pipe to strengthen Calgary’s water system after a pair of catastrophic pipe breaks in the last two years.

While construction crews continue to repave excavation sites, lane closures are still in place in Calgary. Next week, an additional lane along 16th Avenue N.W., near 44th Street, will be closed for construction as work continues on a replacement pipe to the Bearspaw.

Water usage remains in ‘safe’ green zone

The city’s water use was 483 million litres on Wednesday, marking a drop from Tuesday and the second consecutive day where Calgary fell below the 500-million-litre target the city set for safe water consumption.

But Infrastructure Services general manager Michael Thompson reminded Calgarians on Thursday the city isn’t in the clear yet.

“Until water is flowing through the pipe, we are still constrained by the amount of water that we can move from our plants to your taps,” said Thompson.

The city is still urging Calgarians to save 25 litres of water per person, per day, through showers lasting three minutes or less, flushing toilets only when needed and only running washing machines and dishwashers with full loads.

Thompson said the city will provide another update on Monday about progress and timelines surrounding the current round of water restrictions.

He added the city is on schedule for the roughly four weeks of water restrictions it projected it would need this spring, but doesn’t have a set end date it’s targeted.