The administrative building at 3465 Durocher St. will reopen tomorrow, Wednesday, March 11, while work will continue for several days, or perhaps even weeks, to restore water to the building.
The building was closed Monday after it was discovered that a four-inch water main had frozen. This higher-pressure pipe serves only 3465 Durocher, a former elementary school, and no other buildings on the street have suffered a loss of water. McGill facilities staff are working closely with City of Montreal crews to resolve the problem, said François Métivier, Director of Logistics with the Facilities, Operations and Development division of University Services.
Arrangements have been made for employees to use washrooms at the nearby Carrefour Sherbrooke residence building and bottled water will be brought into the building as needed until the water supply is restored.
Printing and mail services, which are housed in the building, should return to normal Wednesday. A number of other administrative offices, including accounting and procurement services, are also located at 3465 Durocher.
Métiviier said this year’s extremely cold weather has pushed frost down into the ground below the standard depth of four feet, resulting in dozens of water-main freeze-ups. And until this pipe thaws, it will be impossible to know if was ruptured at some point during the freezing.
Built in 1921 as an elementary school, the building was acquired by McGill in 2006.
The building was only closed after 4:00 pm, it was a full working day for all staff with no water supply, no bathrooms and no water was made available to staff. Lovely isn’t it.john