Pool Update: The Engineers' Draft Report

We received the engineers report late in the week. What follows are some highlights. Some of the paragraphs are AE and some have been summarized by me.

Before looking at the highlights please consider policy GP.0. from Council's Policy Manual:

The purpose of Council, on behalf of the ratepayers of Kindersley, is to see to it that the Town of Kindersley (a) achieves appropriate results for appropriate persons at an appropriate cost and (b) avoids unacceptable actions and situations.

·         The purpose of the visual inspection was to assess the condition of the existing exterior filter room masonry block wall as well as the exterior stairway attached to this wall, in order to determine the cause of the cracking and identify elements that need to be repaired and/or replaced for the continued use of the Aquatic Centre.

Crack in wall of filter room.

Background

·         Based on the drawings by Midland Industrial Structures Ltd received from Town officials, the Kindersley Aquatic Centre was constructed in 1975. Drawings P-1, A-1 to A-4, S-1, and S-2 were made available for review.

·         The walls are made of lightweight ungrouted and unreinforced hollow blocks with prefabricated steel columns. (met the code of the day)

·         The upper portion of the north wall overlooking the pool was enclosing  the mezzanine was added in 2004.

·         Based on recommendations from C.A. Reed & Associates, in 2009 the Town decided to remove the existing building structure from GL-4 to GL-8 after concerns were raised regarding the structural integrity of the building due to steel corrosion.

Visual Inspection

·         A visual inspection of the Kindersley aquatic centre was conducted on the morning of May 27, 2014 by Associated Engineering.

·         In addition to the filter room exterior masonry block wall and the exterior staircase, the inspection included the women's change room and the southwest exterior wall due to concerns over cracked masonry blocks.

Filter Room

·         Vertical cracking was identified along the northeast wall in the Filter Room directly adjacent to the column on GL-2. This cracking is located on the north side of the column within the first masonry block connected to the column. The cracks run the entire height of the exterior concrete block wall and range in width from 5-10 mm where measured. The cracks have penetrated the interior face shell of the concrete block units. It is apparent that some cracks have previously been filled with a flexible caulking. An exterior stairway with access to the second floor is cantilevered off of the east exterior wall using steel angle bracing as well as through bolts to tie the stair to the existing wall.

Fire Escape hanging off of damaged wall.

·         At the intermediate support location, a masonry block has been displaced at the through bolt connecting the stringer to the wall. An impression of approximately 10 mm is present around the bolt. From the exterior it is visible that the cracking around the through bolt has penetrated through the entire masonry block wall thickness and through the exterior face brick. Additional cracking is present along the exterior wall along the column line on GL-2. The crack has previously been repaired and is now beginning to separate further. It does not appear to fully penetrate the wall at this time.

Women's Change Room

·         During the site visit it was brought to the attention of the AE representative that cracking was present along the north exterior block wall at the west end of the wall which separates the change rooms from the pool deck. The crack runs the entire 3.05 m (10ft) height of the concrete block wall and is located approximately 400 mm away from the northwest corner of the wall. The crack is approximately 2-3 mm in width and has penetrated the entire wall section (both interior and exterior face shells). The crack was traced to the women's washroom in the west stall. The bottom of the interior crack begins at the block out for the toilet plumbing.

·         An additional crack was found along the southwest exterior wall along the column line on GL-1 at the south west corner of the women's change room

Conclusions

·         From our visual inspection as well as a desktop review of the drawings provided, it appears that the separations between exterior face bricks located on column lines along GL-1 & 2 are movement joints which have opened up and broke the caulking sealant.

·         As described above, the exterior concrete masonry wall within the northeast filter room is lightweight concrete block unreinforced with no grouted cores. From review it appears that the existing masonry block wall has insufficient capacity to carry wind loads acting on the building exterior wall in combination with axial loads from the second floor. Due to the predominant wind direction coming from the west, the east exterior filter room wall would be subject to wind forces "pulling" on the wall. This would cause tension in the masonry block on the interior surface near the GL-2 column, leading to cracking. This is consistent with the area of cracking witnessed during the inspection.

·         In addition to the lack of capacity to carry wind load, the cracking could be caused by a number of other factors including differential thermal movements between the dissimilar materials (steel vs. masonry). The columns in question are also located within the braced bays (building bays with steel bracing rods) with little room for expansion around the concrete masonry block.

·         The cracking in the northwest corner of the Women's Change Room exterior blockwall (east of GL-3) also appears to be caused by the forces described above. The cracks observed are significant as they have completely penetrated the concrete face shell of the masonry block. In unreinforced masonry, this is the portion of the wall that resists both vertical and horizontal forces. If left as is, the cracking would eventually penetrate the entire block wall thickness and could lead to a failure of the wall.

Recommendations

·         Based on our visual inspection and desktop review of the existing masonry wall construction, it is recommended that the pool be kept closed until repairs can be completed.

·         The walls should be rehabilitated so it is stiffer.

·         The insulation filling the hollow blocks needs to be removed.

·         The walls are to be stiffened with reinforced grout poured into the walls.

·         The Fire Escape stair should be taken off and replaced using posts and a different style of wall attachments.

·         Based on our discussions, the repairs could be done within one month of the Town selecting a contractor. Time on site to conduct the repairs is estimated to be 1-2 weeks but is dependent on the contractor's schedule.

We have a meeting with the engineers to further discuss the report Tuesday.

PS Notes:

·         Masonry contractors felt that the wall may be replaced rather than rehabilitated.

·         The insulation has to be tested for asbestos. If the results show asbestos then another firm will have to be hired to remove the asbestos prior to work on the wall starting.

·         The work might be able to begin within a month and once started take only a week.

·         No costs have been quoted at this time but it looks like it may be less than originally anticipated.

But

Pipes exposed for inspection.

·         We are still determining the extent of the damage to the filter pipes and the cost of repairing them. This may require ripping up the concrete deck, replacing the pipes, and repouring concrete.

·         The filter still has issues and a new pump and valves are needed.

·         I have asked for a summary sheet of all the maintenance challenges the pool is facing including estimated costs.

·         We need as much information as possible so as to avoid “bankruptcy by a thousand small repairs” (death by a thousand cuts)

Questions: 

What is a reasonable cost to repair the pool? $25,000? $50,000? $100,000? 

What is the minimum length of time the pool should be open?

Are ready to start a big push to fundraise for the development of Phase 2: The West Central Community Centre?

To ensure our children have access to a pool: should we consider temporarily busing our children to Eatonia for swimming rather than pouring money into an aging facility?

Let me know what you think.