Fernie City Council has authorized staff to reallocate the existing budget from the arena dehumidifier project to commission a structural engineering assessment and concept design of the fire hall up to a total project cost of $23,500.
The vote was in reference to the fire hall roof structure, which was the subject of a 1997 study by Armstrong Engineering. The study identified that the current roof structure is insufficient to support snow loads as per the building code that was current at the time. Snow loading requirements have since been increased.
Consultation records with WorkSafeBC in 2016 identified that the City had concerns about the structural load capacity of the fire hall roof as it relates to snow load. Staff developed a snow shoveling procedure in response to reduce risks.
An assessment by Kassian Dyck Engineering completed in 2016, to visually assess the structural condition of exposed members, determined that several members do not have sufficient capacity for the 1970 design loads.
The new structural engineering assessment timeline is 10 weeks from the project award date.
