Council awards $130K contract for Pyramid Recreation Centre roof repairs

By Galen Simmons

St. Marys council has awarded a contract for a replacement and repairs to portions of the Pyramid Recreation Centre (PRC) roof following a series of leaks earlier this winter that briefly disrupted programming at the facility.

At its March 10 regular council meeting, council approved awarding a tender valued at nearly $130,000 to Grand Valley Roofing and Coating to repair sections of the roof above the Blue Rink and the adjacent Friendship Centre. The work is intended to address ongoing issues with the aging roof system and prevent further leaks that could disrupt programming at the PRC.

“We have a report in front of you for a procurement award for the replacement of the flat-roof portion of the Friendship Centre, and that is where all the mechanical equipment sits above the kitchen and above meeting rooms A, B and C,” St. Marys community services director Doug LaPointe told council.

“We’re not replacing the steel roof at this time – it’s in good shape, it’s been properly maintained – and then we’re also carrying an allowance which was already pre-planned prior to the issues we had over the Blue Rink this winter. We’re going to do some major repairs to the metal seams. The metal itself is okay, but there’s a seam that pretty much runs the length of the rink and we’re going to do some restorations to that.”

LaPointe said Artas Engineering and Design Inc., the engineering firm hired by the town to review the scope of the project and the bids submitted, recommended Grand Valley Roofing and Coating install a new polyurethane elastomeric fluid applied system to repair the rink’s metal seams. While he told council the roofing contractor is not experienced with this product, the roofers have agreed to get trained and certified in its use and the product manufacturer will be onsite during repairs to assist.

During the repairs, LaPointe said staff and its contractors will evaluate the entire Blue Rink roof system to determine how the town can better manage snow load on the roof without compromising weight distribution to prevent leaks and other issues from reoccurring in the future.

In response to a question from Coun. Marg Luna, LaPointe said the roof replacement and repairs will not result in the closure of the Friendship Centre, however users may experience excessive noise and smells associated with the work for a period of between one and two weeks beginning in mid-spring.

The tender award comes after a leak over the Blue Rink in early February temporarily delayed a minor-hockey tournament at the facility while staff and contractors diverted water away from the ice surface and completed repairs.

According to a community services update presented to council Feb. 24, warmer temperatures on Feb. 6 caused an existing leak to worsen, forcing staff to pause the tournament briefly while water was diverted and ice repairs were completed. With cooperation from other user groups, the event was delayed approximately 20 minutes before programming resumed.

Town staff later confirmed the issue was largely the result of extreme winter conditions that persisted throughout January and early February. During that period, St. Marys experienced an extended stretch of temperatures that remained below freezing, allowing snow accumulation of up to four feet in some areas of the roof.

As temperatures fluctuated in early February, melting and refreezing created layers of ice beneath the snowpack. According to staff, those ice layers allowed water to penetrate seams in the roof, contributing to the leaks observed above the Blue Rink.

Following the February incident, contractors were brought on site to assess the situation and carry out temporary repairs while town staff worked to prevent further disruptions.

In a Feb. 13 email update, LaPointe said contractors had spent several days on site attempting to address the issue while staff monitored conditions on the roof. LaPointe noted the combination of heavy snow accumulation and repeated thaw-freeze cycles had created an ice layer beneath the snowpack that allowed water to seep through seams in the roof structure.

As a precaution, staff installed rain-diverter tarps with hoses beneath the Blue Rink ceiling to channel any additional water away from the ice surface if needed. Those diverters were installed Feb. 14 in the areas where the most significant leaks had occurred.

According to the Feb. 24 update, the tarps successfully prevented further water from reaching the ice surface and no additional disruptions to rink programming had been reported at that time.

“We’ve left everything in place in case because we’d hate to have more disruptions,” LaPointe said in response to a question from Coun. Jim Craigmile about the current state of the leak. “It has been dry; we’ve also had a couple days of significant rain. All this snow has melted from on the roof, so that’s all taken care of. There was some leaking during the heavier rain that we had last week, and then it went away quite quickly.

“So, we’ve left everything that’s there in case there’s an issue, just so we don’t have to worry about it until the end of the year, and then we have more stuff on standby if there’s a leak somewhere else.”