Ottawa·NewGatineau is currently repairing multiple water main breaks in downtown Hull, leaving some 3,000 people under a boil water advisory.An estimated 3,000 people in downtown Hull are under a boil water advisory CBC News · Posted: Sep 18, 2025 4:08 PM EDT | Last Updated: 21 minutes agoCrews were working to repair watermain breaks downtown Hull on Thursday morning. (Mateo Garcia-Tremblay/Radio-Canada)Municipal workers in Gatineau are repairing multiple water main breaks that have closed the Canadian Museum of History and left 3,000 people under a boil water advisory. The ruptures include two burst pipes on Laurier Street on Tuesday and another significant leak on Wednesday. The boil water advisory affects some 3,000 people, including residents, businesses and some federal government buildings, a spokesperson for the City of Gatineau told CBC. The incidents forced the closure of multiple buildings in Hull, including the museum and the Outaouais tourism office.”While we do plan to reopen our doors once water service has been reestablished, we do not have a timeline at this time for when the work will be completed,” Canadian Museum of History spokesperson Stephanie Verner told CBC in an email.Aging infrastructureGatineau public works department director Yvon Desjardins says crews were doing routine work in the area this week which involved shutting some valves. This increased pressure in the water pipes, some of which eventually burst.”There was an open valve that wasn’t well indicated on our plans, it’s what caused [it], but there shouldn’t have been a water main break,” he said. Public works department director Yvon Desjardins says the city is investigating what caused the watermain breaks. (Aya Dufour/CBC)”It may be corrosion in the pipes, we are still investigating,” he said. The water pipes on Laurier Street date back to 1971.”They are 54 years old,” said Desjardins. “They’re underground, so there is definitely some corrosion.”Experts say other factors may have contributed to the water main breaks.”It’s very difficult to do maintenance work in the area, a busy street has to be cut off and dug up, it’s a really expensive process,” said Yannick Hemond, professor at Université du Québec à Montréal. Other infrastructure, like gas pipes and hydro lines, run near the water main — which added time and complexity to the repairs.Ahead of the official start of the Gatineau municipal election campaign on Friday, mayoral candidate Mario Aubé held a press conference on Thursday at the site of the water main breaks, vowing to do more to improve the city’s aging infrastructure if elected.Among other campaign promises, he pledged to renovate the Maison du Citoyen instead of demolishing it.With files from Radio-Canada’s Patrick Foucault and Maxence Bahaban
Gatineau double water main breaks force closure of museum, buildings
