Repairs and renovations to three Port Moody civic facilities will cost the city almost $700,000 more than budgeted — and more than $13 million overall.
At its meeting Tuesday, council’s finance committee agreed to a staff recommendation to cover the $685,740 overrun with funds from the city’s debt reserve, which is currently at $750,000.
In her report that was presented to the committee, Port Moody’s general manager of community services, Kate Zanon, said the total estimated cost for the work done to city hall, the adjacent recreation complex, and the arts centre, which is located at old city hall on St. Johns Street, will be $13,245,740. When the project was awarded in 2017 to ICE Developments, it was budgeted to cost $12.56 million.
Zanon said the construction was originally projected to take about a year but the extent of work required at city hall turned out to be more complex than anticipated. The renovations are now expected to be completed sometime in the spring.
A building envelope assessment done for the city in 2015 by Elemental Engineering targeted several problems at city hall, which was built between 1994 and 1996, including:
• water ingress that was causing staining of the walls, corroded flashing and soggy masonry;
• soggy gypsum because of the lack of a drainage cavity in unprotected stucco exterior walls;
• corroded steel studs and beams, and weakened masonry caused by the lack of a protective membrane behind some of the building’s brick exterior walls;
• a thin roof membrane that was at the end of its lifespan;
• and failing grout around windows.
Zanon said some of the work at city hall ended up being more complicated and expensive than originally thought.
“The full extent of the work required cannot be realized until after demolition occurs,” she said in her report.
She also said the project was affected by a demanding construction market, challenges to scheduling trades and additional design requirements.
Several components of the rec complex, which was built in the 1970s, had also reached the end of their lifespan, including the roof. Work there also included updates to improve the energy efficiency of newer parts of the building, including the gym and second arena that were added in 2006-’08.
But Dave Stevens, the city’s manager of facilities, said the scope of some of that work changed once the project started. He cited the spa, hot tub and steam room that was due for new ventilation, saying after walls were stripped away, substantial corrosion was discovered in steel components. It had to be redesigned and rebuilt with a new exterior as well as better, more powerful mechanical equipment to ensure the proper venting of moisture.
The arts centre received a new roof and exterior stairway as well as cleaning and repainting of the exterior.
In her report, Zanon said the project was initially budgeted in 2015 to cost $9,475,000, and a loan of $10,500,000 was authorized by city council that also included money for a contingency fund.
But when the only bid for the contract came in at $12,560,000 two years later, part of that contingency was put towards funding the contract as well as additional money from some of the city’s various reserve funds.
