From the outside it might look as though limited progress has been made on the Westlock Rotary Spirit Centre project over the last few months, but the inside tells a different story.
The various components of the facility, such as the arena, field house, workout room, concession and office space are now clearly defined inside the building.
“A lot of the work that had taken place was underground, so you didn’t see it,” said Westlock CAO Darrell Garceau. “Now the building is being closed in, and once the doors go in we’ll really see the difference.”
There is, of course, still a lot more work to be done — and a lot will be completed in the next few weeks. In September, there will be another big concrete pour, the steel frame for the second-floor walking track will go in and all the doors and windows will be installed.
It will be crucial to get the building enclosed before winter sets in so that the interior construction can continue uninterrupted regardless of the weather.
A lot of the outside work will be spread over a lengthy period of time, simply because so much of the work, such as water and sewers, had to be laid before the bulk of the inside work was finished.
A lot more can be completed while construction continues inside, but some finishing work such as paving and landscaping will have to wait until there is no more heavy equipment on site.
The project has a somewhat troubled history. Town administration and council had initially hoped the facility would be finished in time to have hockey in the new arena this winter, but when the original contractor Balon Construction went bankrupt, the town had to scramble to find a new construction manager and some of the project’s details changed.
The timeline then had to be extended to allow Brenex, the new construction management company, to review the design and plan the subcontracts.
The budget also ballooned by about 20 per cent to nearly $15 million, due in part to many contracts having to be re-tendered and Brenex having to take the time to ensure that what had been done was done properly.
“When Brenex took over the project, they spent about two months going through the contract and the scope of the work,” Garceau said. “They then went out to the marketplace to get other contracts — the steel studwork, the cribbing, the earth work. They’re staying within their budget.”
Garceau said about 80 per cent of the contracts have already been awarded and have fallen within the set guidelines.
The bulk of the work on the project is scheduled to be completed within six months, by the end of February, and Brenex is still planning for “substantial completion of the project” by March 2012, he added.
The last step will be to move the ice plant over from the Jubilee Arena once the hockey season is over. The old ice plant will be used for the new rink, and a new 20 to 30-ton ice plant will be installed for the curling rink’s ice.
Videos of construction progress can be seen online by searching Spirit Centre construction via Google.
