Sinking arena may delay hockey season

SARA MINOGUE

The Arctic Winter Games arena is sinking into the tundra and Iqaluit’s chief engineer says fixing the problem could delay the ice production by “a couple of weeks.”

The problem was first noticed in February, says Brad Sokach, the city’s engineer. The city reacted by spending $85,000 injecting concrete into the foundation to shore up the end of the building that was sinking.

Two months ago, one end had sunk another seven inches.

“You can’t make ice on that,” Ian Fremantle, the city’s chief administrative officer told Nunatsiaq News last Wednesday.

In the next six weeks, the city will launch a “geotechnical investigation,” at a cost of about $100,000, to find out the cause of the problem, and to stabilize the building by injecting grout, a thin type of concrete, into the foundation.

The investigation will also include ultrasound testing to solve another mysterious problem.

The floor under the ice rink is cooled with refrigeration pipes, set into the concrete about one inch below the surface. The chilly pipes help to freeze water that is flooded over the arena, and keep the ice cool.

Last year, city workers wondered why it took so long to make ice in the building.

It appears that the pipes in one end of the arena are covered with an additional three inches of concrete. That concrete may have been poured after the pipes were laid to level the floor, or it may be a simple construction mistake.

Ultrasound testing will determine how extensive the problem is, and what must be done to fix it.

The AWG arena is usually open for business by Oct. 1.

Simon Adams, service manager for the AWG complex says that even if there is a delay this year, the city will run a full events schedule, starting with the mass registration and kids carnival planned for Saturday, Sept. 11.

“This is just an ice problem and won’t affect that,” Adams says.

If the ice is delayed into October, Adams plans to run a full schedule at the old arena, possible with longer hours.

“We’ll fit everything in,” Adams says.