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On shaky ground in Arviat New hamlet office won't open on schedule
Darrell Gree
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 4, 2013
ARVIAT
Bad luck with construction projects continues to plague the hamlet of Arviat.
The community was expecting its new hamlet office to be open before the end of 2014, but it will now be well into 2015 at the earliest.
The new building was originally planned to be 515 square metres, but now sits at about 750 square metres to meet the community's needs.
The price tag is now at about $9 million. Sanaqatiit Construction began work on the project this past July.
Plans for the original foundation had to be scraped in February of 2013, when the community pointed out the piles going in would not work in that location.
The plan was then changed to a spread-footing design.
Work was to continue until this coming December, but the company consultant has recommended the pad be allowed to freeze during the winter.
Darren Flynn, Community and Government Services assistant deputy minister of community support services, said there are two scenarios being looked at.
He said the first is to finish pad work and get the foundation completed, then shut down the project to let the permafrost freeze back this winter.
"They're also looking at using screw jacks, which might not be the preferred option, given the type of foundation," said Flynn.
"If the decision is made to allow the permafrost to freeze back, work would resume in May and we would probably see occupancy happen around April of 2015."
Flynn said there's never absolute certainty when dealing with permafrost.
He said there's been many past issues dealing with permafrost in Arviat.
"That said, there is a chance things might not work out the way it's planned.
"We'll have to look at additional ways of coping with it if that's the case, but the word I'm getting is the matter should be resolved if it's allowed to freeze back and is properly backfilled.
"In my experience with buildings in Arviat using a similar-type foundation, such as the wildlife office, difficulties were encountered.
"But once the backfill was done, it proved to be what was needed to make it work."
Flynn said shifting has always been an issue in Arviat and nobody wants a building with shifting or cracking issues in two years.
He said there's going to be about three times the compacted granular material put onto the lot than originally planned to make sure it does become a solid foundation.
"This building is probably going to be the model for municipal offices in
the region for sometime to come.
"So we want to ensure it's able to serve the community's needs for at least the next 30 or 40 years."
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