The preliminary list is out and they are going to focus on more of the hot spots that have been giving them problems. Moose Jaw City Hall is continuing to push to get as much cast iron work done as they can during our short construction seasons.

$5.85 million has been earmarked for Phase Three according to the five year plan.  Council continues to work through the budget but even if there is a slight change to that figure, a large amount of work is still expected to be completed in 2018.

City Engineer Josh Mickleborough says the preliminary list that's out shows more areas that they've been focused on from the start.

"Those are the high break frequency areas that we want to try to address so that we're not impacting water service and spending operational dollars on unnecessary repairs."

Moose Jaw has a record setting 116 water main breaks in 2017, a 40% increase over the number of breaks in 2016. With pipes that are over 100 years old, it's no real surprise that we're seeing the increase.

As more work goes into the planning for Phase 3, we'll get a better idea of how much pipe will actually be replaced. One thing we do know is that Manitoba Street East from Main Street to the underpass will get a lot of attention next year.  It's slated for cast iron replacement, there's continued work on road surface replacement and a new bridge for southbound traffic over the river are all on the agenda for 2018.