The Cold Lake Lodge building process is moving along, but could see a delay in the expected completion date.
“We're probably looking at it being further into 2018 for a completion date. We don't have an exact date but there is a potential to pick up some time,” said vice-chair of the Lakeland Lodge and Housing Board Chris Vining.
The original completion date was planned for mid-2018, but some bad weather has put the crew behind.
“We are a little bit behind schedule, just because we had some construction delays in the spring with some wet weather and a couple other delays that we had,” explained Vining. “But things are moving right along and we aren't anticipating anymore delays right now, all materials are on site and crews are there.”
Although the contractor, Seko Construction, has experienced some unexpected delays, the construction crew is working hard at the moment to not lose anymore time.
“We're progressing along. We are at the framing stage and the foundation and stuff are all done now. We have our structural steels up for where the elevator has to go and now they've started framing the first floor of the one wing last week, walls are also staring to go up.”
They were expecting to be completed the framing stage at this point, but the delays have pushed the timeline back.
“As long as we can get the weather to cooperate a little bit and hopefully the really cold weather will stay away for a little while until we can get the walls and the roof on and we can get some heat in there.”
Vining added that he hopes they can make up some of that lost time with extra work.
“We've lost maybe three months, and that doesn't mean three months at the end (of the expected completion date) because that kind of depends on how everything lands and lines up. If things go well from here, there is lots of potential to make up time,” said Vining. “However I am anticipating we will be a little bit off-schedule by the time that we land at the end.”
In terms of the funding and payment for the new portion of the building, the Government of Alberta pays for the construction, while the Lakeland Lodge and Housing Board will run the facility.
“All the funding is in place… the contracts with the building are all with the province and the contractor, so the way it winds up is that the building belongs to the province,” said Vining. “We just manage the building for the program of having the lodge and stuff.”
The new lodge will have 61 rooms, which is an increase from the current facility that has 48. Every room will also increase in size. As a whole, the lodge and housing board is happy to see that their hard work is paying off, despite a few delays.
“It's kind of fun to see the walls and stuff going up on it, because people can start appreciating the size of the project,” said Vining. “With walls going up people can start to get an idea of the scope of the project so it's pretty exciting.”
