The Cold Lake Energy Centre expansion has been going steady regardless of a few hiccups along the way.
This is the third phase of the Energy Centre project. Once completed, the expansion to the Energy Centre will include a second arena, dressing rooms, office spaces, and a climbing wall.
“Everything is looking good for the project at this point,” said City of Cold Lake CAO Kevin Nagoya.
The expansion is set for a completion of June 2018, and so far has stayed within the $23 million budget.
At this time, contractors are completing the major concrete pours for the flooring of the second level surfaces.
Despite a wet spring, construction is moving smoothly.
“Weather always impacts the schedule for major builds. It would be ignorance to say it doesn't, however, there are ways and means when you do building like that to catch up,” clarified Nagoya. “I would say right now, we're looking pretty good for maintaining a close schedule. I think we're a little bit behind, but during the critical path of the project we will see where things line-up as we head into fall.”
There isn't anything in particular that has delayed the project, but the ammonia leak in June did set it back a few days. In order to make up for the delay, the contractors added a second team when erecting the steel, cutting the time it would normally take to do it in half.
Residents may experience some disruptions throughout the construction process, more specifically during the fall and winter months.
Nagoya explained, “There is going to be disruptions… anytime you're anywhere and there are renovations going on it comes with its inconveniences. You'll notice there's wood everywhere, partial blocking of some of the hallways, we need to work with the contractor in order to get the new facility in there, but it does come with inconveniences as we utilize the facilities.”
Once hockey season is back-up and running things will only get busier.
“As we move into the fall, some of those inconveniences will continue once we have hockey starting to come back into the building. There's going to be hammering and stuff like that ongoing while this expansion occurs,” Nagoya said.
Regardless of the interference, he emphasized that the facility will be worth the trouble as residents patiently wait for the opening day of the second arena.
