Yesterday afternoon in a hybrid meeting using Zoom, the Public Services Standing Committee received a presentation and discussed the Centennial Arena project with Dr. Dan Tingley of Wood Research and Design.
Tingley told the council members, “In my estimation from having worked on many of these [arenas] before, we will see the arena be structurally sound, somewhere around the first of September - if we don’t miss any time.”
“If we stay right at it, and we don’t have any more interruptions, we can see the TRS people get to a point where it’s structurally sound the first of September.” TRS, Timber Restoration Services, is the contractor performing the restoration work to the design and specifications of WRD.
Presently, it's planned for the roof insulation and roofing work to follow the TRS work.
The fifty-minute long session discussed the schedule; roofing, restoration design, foundation issues, and other similar arena restoration projects that WRD has completed.
The meeting was Dr. Tingley’s second presentation to council members. The first, in person, Nov. 6. That story is here: Arena: There’s a lot more right about it than wrong
TRS already onsite and working
Acting Director of Public Works, Bill Goulding, told the committee that TRS “arrived on site yesterday. They started working and continue to work today. They’re prepping in anticipation of receiving design documents from WRD [that are] imminently pending.”
“Things are proceeding at this point, as quickly as we can possibly make them happen,” he said.
And later, during the presentation, Tingley showed photos of the TRS prep work that Goulding mentioned. The photo showed a portion of truss prepared for an application of a high-strength fibre reinforcing. (See photo gallery with this story.)
Stopping the water leaks
Beginning the Q&A, committee chair, Couns. Luc Morrissette, asked Tingley, “What preventive maintenance can the City do to stop water from getting into the arena?”
Tingley told the committee that the building was not designed adequately for wind conditions. “What happens in the wind, even under moderate winds, the building racks. It tends to move.”
”That’s why that building has been very difficult to keep from leaking,” he said.
The new design includes “adequate rack resistance for long-term durability for the building,” Tingley said.
He pointed out that the existing roof does not have sheathing. Only “standing seam.” The standing seam roofing is the ridged roof panel visible from outside the building on the entire roof surface.
The underside of the standing seam is also visible inside the arena in an area where the insulation is removed. (See photo showing support tower. The standing seam panel, is visible above the tower.)
Tingley repeatedly mentioned the need for sheathing as part of the design to prevent the building from racking due to wind.
Later as he responded to another question about roofing from Couns. Charles Flintoff, he said, “it seems to me that once you get the sheathing down, you can put some temporary tar paper with a good overlap and then protect that. Then during the fall, while you’ve got occupancy and you’re running with your [rink] ice and so on, you can finish your roofing and finish your insulation."
"That would give you another couple or three months to get that work done.”
“You’d still have ice in, you’d still have occupancy, and you get where you’re going.”
Timeline to full start up of the structural restoration
Tingley said it was “unfortunate the way it worked with JCI. … that fell apart and delayed things.” He said, “we're sensitive to that. We've just really committed staff,” and he described how WRD’s design work was being done from various offices “around the clock because they’re in different time zones.”
“We’ll be ready to issue a completed IFC – that’s ‘Issued For Construction’ drawing set – either tomorrow or first thing, Monday.”
“That would leave TRS able to put a final quote together for Bill [Goulding]. And they already have staff in there now, working, as you can see here in the picture.”
Later in the discussion, Tingley added, “[Goulding’s] done his best with JCI. I was in the middle of all that. I can tell you he did his best and that was an unfortunate situation.”
High-strength fibre structural reinforcement
Referring to the photo of the planed-smooth underside of a truss cord, Tingley said, “they’ll install high-strength fibre.” He held up a sample. “That’s five times the strength of steel at a fifth the dead weight.”
“It’s Kevlar in glass, at a fifth of the weight. They apply that to the bottom of the cord and enhance its capacity significantly.”
And he reminded the committee, “As I said to council in my last presentation there in person, the vast majority of the elements of the building are good. They’re sound.”
Foundation questions
Couns. Rick Bull inquired about the footings, visible in a drawing, noting, “There was some question about the footings, brought up at council last week.”
Tingley told the committee that “the foundation has been jacking” (lifting) due to frost. He explained that a system using insulation as a frost jacket and micro-screw piles to carry load is planned.
“I think quite effectively, for almost half of the cost of the upgrading of this column set, to be able to get us where we’re going.”
Structural health monitoring system – does it stay after the restoration?
Mayor Andrew Wannan asked, “Does [the health monitoring system] stay with the arena once these repairs are done as part of our maintenance scheduling to watch the structure?”
Tingley said, “It might be a value to do that.” He described how at another arena restoration in Chester, Nova Scotia, they maintained the monitoring for a period of time after the work was completed.
Grant application to NOHFC – up to $2,000,000
Goulding also informed the committee that during the weekend, a phase one grant application was sent to NOHFC.
“The program I applied to offers up to $2 million in grant financing support.”
The 50 per cent grant application now, opens the opportunity for further grant requests for other costs above $4 million, which the project is expected to exceed.