The BTC Field House will not be ready in time for the planned New Year's Eve Centennial celebrations.
In a release on Wednesday, city communications coordinator Mike Halstead announced that "due to delays in construction, the New Year's Eve "Let's Get This Party Started" event planned by the 2013 Centennial Celebrations Committee is moving from the Field House to the Civic Centre."
"The committee had this Plan B in mind just in case," the statement read. As well, the family day party planned for earlier that day is still at the Don Ross Centre.
The news of the latest delay Wednesday stood in contrast to what had been a glowing report earlier this week at North Battleford council, when parks and recreation director Keith Anderson provided his latest CUPlex construction report.
He reported considerable progress at the Field House at that meeting. The turf was in, the court floor was going in, the lines were on the track and the track itself is complete, Anderson reported to the meeting. He expressed confidence that substantial completion on the BTC Field House would happen on the expected target date of Dec. 12.
"I'm confident they'll achieve substantial completion on Wednesday. Things are looking good for New Year's Eve," Anderson told council.
Unfortunately, Anderson was called to the site the very next day by contractor Scott Builders and got the news that substantial completion was not going to be achieved in time.
"It's been put off to early in the new year," said Anderson on Wednesday. He adds, though, there should be no problem for the Field House achieving substantial completion early in January.
Simply put, there was still too much work left to be done before the new building could be deemed substantially complete and handed over to the city. Among the work still to be finished was on the court floor, which according to Anderson is still about half done.
"That's a substantial portion of the contract," said Anderson.
The netting on the courts was not hung yet, either, and Anderson says that work will be done during the first two weeks of January. There was some other work that needed done at the site as well, including painting and the like.
There should be no problem having the alternate venue, the Civic Centre, ready for the New Year's Eve bash in its place. Anderson did note, however, they will need to work around some of the games scheduled there in getting set up for that event.
The New Year's Eve celebration is the second major event at the Field House that has either been postponed or moved due to construction delays there. Earlier this year, the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce announced plans to hold a fall "Best Business Showcase" trade show at the venue, but those plans were pushed back a year once it became clear the venue would not be complete in time.
While Anderson had provided a mostly upbeat update on the status of construction at the CUPlex on Monday night, not so rosy was his update on what has become an ongoing headache: the drive aisle to the Field House.
That drive aisle that could have been done prior to freeze-up by contractor APM for the public square portion, but wasn't done, as Anderson had pointed out at this and previous meetings at City Hall.
Anderson told council the city "did request a credit from APM for the east end of the public square drive aisle." That would come in the form of a change order, he said. In response to a question from coun. Ryan Bater, Anderson said there has been no response yet to that request.
Anderson noted that temporary measures would be taken at the entrance way in the meantime. "Unfortunately, that means our entrance to the Field House will be gravel, this year."
Additionally, there will be a concrete pad constructed next to it by Scott Builders as their portion of the contract, but the city will have to live with gravel until the spring, after which the city plans to have a local contractor take on the job of constructing the drive aisle.
The other ongoing issues the city has dealt with at the CUPlex has been with the mechanical system/HVAC at the aquatic centre, issues that caused moisture above the wood soffit at the front of the building and at the slide tower.
Anderson noted there has been some good response from the mechanical contractor with respect to addressing the issues. Anderson said they have tweaked the system and "it's working quite a bit better," so that it's not nearly as humid in the lobby area and there's better air balance as well.
