Arena shoring work and rental equipment expenditures of $238,000 plus applicable taxes were approved last night at the special council meeting.
Temporary shoring installed
Special Projects Manager, Bill Goulding, explained, “The shoring work has been done at the arena. Staff had to give the go-ahead to TRS to mobilize because we were really concerned about the snow loads that were coming and we didn’t want to lose a building over our inability to deal with this, administratively.”
He reported that the shoring is in place and “it’s able to carry snow loads up to whatever the building code prescribes now.”
The supported roof no longer requires heat from within the building to melt roof snow, saving the cost of fuel and staff time to refuel the temporary heaters.
“We were putting in between a thousand and twelve hundred litres of diesel into the heaters a day,” Goulding said.
Optional winter safety mitigation measures
Council was also informed of optional winter safety mitigation at a cost of $350k to $600k.
The mitigation would allow roofing work to continue during the winter. It was an option staff did not recommend, noting the additional expense for winter work would not improve the overall completion date of the arena significantly.
Council accepted the staff recommendation. Deputy mayor Charles Flintoff noted that due to pending foundation work, “we wouldn’t be open until later on,” and he inquired about using the time for other interior work, “have we looked at the bathrooms, the lobby, and getting quotes?”
And council’s decision not to incur the winter safety mitigation costs agreed with public input from a resident early in the meeting.
‘Let’s not spend another dime other than on the integrity of this structure’
Local resident, Mike Thomas, addressed the council during the Public Input Session. He said that Goulding’s report had overarching themes of “let’s be prudent and let’s be cautious.”
“As much as you say, you don’t pay attention to social media, the chatter is getting louder and the financial concerns are getting greater,” he said.
“As challenging a decision [as] it is, I think the best course of action would be, let’s not spend another dime other than on the integrity of this structure until we have confidence that we have something worth building on,” Thomas said.
Micro pile testing / micro pile installation
Council also heard that Wood Research and Design (WRD) has engaged a contractor to begin the micro pile test work on site as soon as Monday.
This will allow the “pull testing” evaluation work to be conducted sooner than the vendor contracted for the micro pile work is able to return to do it.
“There’s a scheduling conflict and [the primary micro pile contractor] won’t be back to do our work before March,” Goulding said.
Remaining scope of work
Goulding reported that Johnson Controls (JCI) is close to providing council with construction documents and pricing for the ‘vast majority of the remaining scope of work.” The intent was to do it this summer, coming.
He said the scope includes air handling, dehumidification, and new siding.
Mayor Andrew Wannan commented, “So, most of our questions will be answered [in] March and March-April.”
August 1, uncertain
Wannan: “Are these delays going to impact our hopeful target for August first?”
Goulding, responding in meeting protocol: “Thank you, through you [chair], I expect that they will.”
‘Confidence that we have something worth building on’
The micro pile test work is expected to begin again on Monday.
“WRD has commissioned EXP, another engineering firm, to come and do testing.”
“So there'll be a drill rig showing up on Monday to do that testing to ensure that we have sufficient founding pressure.
With that information, Goulding explained, “We can know what depth we need to drill to have sufficient founding pressure so that we can have a proper budget figure to put forward to council so that they can consider it.”