City crews are putting an end to a days-long water shutdown for 20,000 Kamloops residents.

A broken concrete pipe prompted the city to order several neighbourhoods to stop using water earlier this week, extended after a failed repair yesterday, May 13.

City assistant civic operations director said crews are cutting out a piece of the pipe on River Street and replacing the water main with a new PVC pipe.

Residents were asked to again stop using water today and potable water trucks are in the area.

Although crews plan to have the pipe reconnected by 6 p.m., it’s not clear when it may be drinkable again.

“What we’re doing right now is just getting water back pressurized in the system, so we can start the flushing process in order to get potable water to test,” Luison said at a news conference today, noting it could take multiple days.

The break came a week after staff briefed council on ongoing inspections of the city’s concrete water pipes, noting other Canadian cities like Calgary have been more prone to breaks. According to the staff report, Kamloops is “well below the Canadian average” for concrete pipe issues.

The report did not say there was a leak found and staff planned to fix it this winter, but it’s likely not the same as the River Street break as staff inspected a pipe going from downtown to Brocklehurst.

It’s not clear yet how much the emergency repair will cost.

At today’s news conference, Luison was also asked about city communication practices after the water main broke and residents have complained on social media they were not informed of the order to keep their taps off.

“The alerts went out and we talked to many people,” he said.

The city issued online alerts to the public and the break was covered by local news outlets, but a Barnhartvale resident speaking with iNFOnews.ca said physical signage was posted in the area more than a day after the break.

Go here for more updates from the City of Kamloops.