Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Jan 07/02) - A leaky water pipe provided interesting scenery for Iqaluit residents over the holiday season.

City employees worked through the Christmas holidays to fix a leaking water pipe beneath an Iqaluit street. From left are Alan Hatt, Levi Tikivik, Steve Iyago and Chris Freda. - Kerry McCluskey/NNSL photo

Thanks to a repeating pattern of freezing and thawing, the underground pipe ruptured and began leaking water beneath one of the city's central residential streets.

Paul Fraser, Iqaluit's director of public works, said the problem became obvious to neighbours and city workers the day after Christmas.

"Eventually it started to boil through the ground. It surfaced and we knew we had a problem.

It had likely been leaking for a while and it just started coming through the frost that day," he said.

Fraser said the broken line was repaired by the beginning of last week and that he expected city employees to have completed their checks of sewer lines and repaired all cosmetic damage by the end of the week.

While he could not provide a dollar figure on the cost of the repairs, Fraser did say area residents seem to have been spared and that no water damage had been reported.