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Another $220,000 needed for new gymnasium By Liz Dadson |
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Kincardine is on the hook for another $220,000 to complete the new gymnasium addition at the Davidson Centre. In committee-of-the-whole last night (Sept. 8), Jim Strasman of Strasman Architects told council that the existing foundation beside the east wall must be repaired before the addition can be built. Cost of this work is $105,849. He also recommended council put another $115,000 in its contingency fund because there wasn't enough in it at the beginning of the project. The total required is $220,849. Strasman said the problem with the foundation along the east wall was not discovered until structural engineers uncovered it at this point in the project. "During the design development phase, site visits were made by the consultants, to the existing Davidson Centre," he said. "At the time, there were no visual indications that the existing foundation walls were being stressed or of questionable integrity." He said that once excavation began and the existing foundation was made available, the footings were inspected. "What we discovered was inadequately-sized footings for the current soils-bearing capacity in the area adjacent to the east arena wall," said Strasman. "While the new structure has been designed for the current bearing capacity, the old structure, now entering 40-plus years, is not and needs to be repaired in order to properly support the existing wall's loads, as well as the new loads being imposed on it." As for the contingency fund, he said the standard allowance for this type of project is five to 10 per cent of the construction value. In this case the contingency fund should have been $175,000 to $350,000, based on the project's value of $3.5 million. "We had $58,450 to start with and currently have $13,865.89," said Strasman. "We are recommending that $115,000 be added. It may not be spent, unless there is another situation we can't foresee. Once the project is out of the ground, everything else is new."
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He
said the corrective measure to fix the area beside the east wall
involves installing a grade beam along the existing footing, and then
every four
to five feet in that block footing, digging out a block and filling it
with
concrete. That will reinforce the block foundation wall and help ensure
it carries the load.
"We were looking at other options, such as underpinning, but they were more costly and would take too much time," said Strasman. "This is a good solution, and it's cheaper." Deputy mayor Laura Haight said it's important to move the project along, given that it must be completed by March 31, 2011, or lose the two-thirds funding from the federal and provincial governments. However, she would like to see regular updates about the status of the project, and in particular, the contingency fund. Council agreed with the corrective measure as recommended by Strasman, and agreed to put $115,000 in the contingency fund. The extra money will come from the Kincardine capital expenditure reserve fund. During discussion of the budget amendments later in the meeting, treasurer Brenda French noted that the $550,000 that Kincardine received through the medical clinic litigation settlement was put into the capital expenditure reserve fund.
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