Members of Town Council, the Recreation Board and the Sedgewick Agricultural Society along with arena and Town staff met with a manager of Structural Engineering from Associated Engineering earlier today in regards to the concerns over the arena’s roof. Earlier this week, the engineer provided a recommendation to the Town to close the arena to the public due to a loss of strength within the most central purlins attributed to corrosion. Those in attendance were able to quiz the engineer on his interpretation of the data and how he came to his conclusion. The engineer also explained the design constraints of the arena based on his study of the “as-built” drawings that will most likely play a large factor in how the issue is rectified. With 9 sections of purlins tested, it was found that they showed almost uniform reduction in thickness of up to 25%. The engineer stated that had the results shown a 3-4% discrepancy, the closure of the arena would not have been necessary however with the data he was provided from testing, his firm had no choice. The main girders were not part of the initial test as there was little visible corrosion identified on them.
The identified next steps are to have further testing performed to include all purlins as well as the main girders that are positioned in the areas showing the most corrosion. Qualimet Inc., the company that performed the initial testing, will return as quickly as possible to complete these tests, however no timeline has yet been provided for their arrival. Over the next few days Associated Engineering will continue to review drawings and obtain information on the design of the pre-engineered bays so as to be able to work towards the quickest and most cost-effective solution.
In the meantime, the Town has reached out to other experts in order to garner a second and third opinion on the condition of the structure. On-site meetings will take place over the next several days in an effort to leave no stone unturned towards returning the arena to full operation mode as soon as possible.
Timeline
A timeline on the discovery of the degree of corrosion to the arena’s purlins is as follows:
In 2018 the Town began discussions with Premier Fire and Flood Restoration in regards to solving a long-term issue of a leaky roof at the arena. The company was recommended to the Town as a cost-effective way to investigate a long-standing issue. The company recommended a roof inspection and water test be done to identify the issue at hand. In fall 2019, the company was hired to perform the remediation of Sedgewick Public School after a fire broke out in the building in August. It was at this time that the company provided a quote to inspect the roof as they were already stationed in Sedgewick along with their sub-contractors.
On October 24th, Phoenix Roofing, a sub-contractor to Premier Fire and Flood Restoration, attended the arena and inspected the roof from above to identify the source of the leaks. The sub-contractor then inspected the roof from ground level inside the arena and at that time noticed the level of corrosion on some of the arena’s purlins. The advice of the sub-contractor was to immediately test the purlins before investigating or putting funds towards fixing the leaking roof.
On October 28th, the Manager of Structural Engineering from Associated Engineering attended for the purpose of providing a second opinion. The engineer provided the Town with the same advice to test the purlins for strength and connected the Town with a company that specializes in this type of testing.
Qualimet Inc. performed testing on December 4th and results were received on December 9th. After viewing the results, the structural engineer made the recommendation on the 9th to close the arena. A special meeting of Council was called for 4pm on the 9th and at that time Council unanimously approved a motion to temporarily close the arena until further notice.