By early morning on the 26th, a steel pipe, of six sections, and slightly smaller in diameter than the conduit, had been ordered, and Controller Godfrey had appeared on the scene, from which he was thereafter never absent for more than a few hours.
But before the pipe could be placed, all the earth on the top of, and to the north of the pipe had to be removed, and the remaining and unbroken sides of the conduit demolished. While this work was in progress, sections of the steel tube began to arrive and were bolted together, so as to be ready to be swung into position as soon as the place was cleared.
In the clearing operations, the engineers were also lucky, owing to the close proximity of one of the Cooke Company’s derrick steam shovels, which not only did the hard work of clearing the ground expeditiously, but later supplied hot water for mixing the cement, and steam to keep it warm while drying.
With Controller Godfrey either at work or bustling up the makers of the steel tube, and City Engineer George Janin, and Waterworks Engineer Lesage, continually at the scene of operations, by Monday, December 29th, the background was cleared and the steel pipe nearly completed.
By Tuesday, the latter had been swung into place, concrete had been run in to fill the joints and workmen had been lowered into the conduit, with buckets of blazing tar, to seal them inside.
On Wednesday, the 31st, at 4.45 A.M., the water was let into the conduit and the pumps were started. They ran a few minutes when the engineers were compelled to close them down because there was not a sufficient depth of water in the conduit for them to operate successfully. It was then found that the water had blown out some of the filling of concrete, wood and tar, near the top of the steel tube, and that a large leak had been formed which would keep the city waterless over New Year’s Day.
Meanwhile various serious fires had occurred in the city, in spite of the extra precautions taken by the fire commissioners and the police, and Chief Tremblay of the fire department is reported to have demanded at the City Hall that he be given water, and to have stated that there was but enough water remaining in the reservoirs for one big fire.
At the same time a number of foolish rumours gained credence, such as that should the water not be forthcoming from the conduit at once, the dam which holds the River St. Lawrence out from the old aqueduct would be dynamited, and an even more destructive rumor that the said dam was about to burst at any minute. Had either of these eventualities occurred, as various engineers pointed out, the whole of Point St. Charles would have been flooded.
On Wednesday afternoon, about 4 o’clock, hot concrete was run into the joints at both ends of the steel tube, and it was announced that after allowing four hours for pouring and fifteen hours for drying, the water would be let into the conduit and all would be well.
Thursday, however, still saw the engineers waiting all day for the concrete to set, while a pipe from the derrick up on the embankment above discharged steam into a canvas outer covering to the joint, and through a man-hole in the tube into the interior of the conduit.