Twas salty soil that killed the pipe

 

I think they want to be more "woke" to say 'several factors'.  That way, they can deflect the blame, but the sad truth is that it was '70's concrete' with bare re-bar, and almost no concrete cover.  This is what has killed all our bridges.  The salt on the roads corrodes the steel.  No other cause.

This has made all these bridges and pipes only last 40 years, instead of 100, as the budget assumed.  In Ontario, almost all those bridges are replaced, along with underground parking.

They were slack in funding a new pipe.  

ps. this means that the failure mechanism is uniform along the whole pipe, since it is all under roads.  Thus, their hope of 'whack a mole' with wire snaps, has no physics.