A crack in one pool at the Minoru Centre for Active Living has caused more than a year’s delay in the opening of that facility’s aquatic centre – but, in fact, there were two big pool failures during construction.
The delay in opening the aquatic centre was attributed to a crack at the bottom of Lap Pool 1 and that is currently being fixed with an initial scheduled completion date of September.
But in a statement of defence to a lawsuit launched by the construction management company, Stuart Olson against the city, the City of Richmond claims Stuart Olson was responsible – in addition to the crack in Lap Pool 1 - for the “failure of the waterproofing membrane on Lap Pool 2” as well as “leaks in various pools resulting in excessive water in the crawl space below, affecting the progress of the work.”
The seniors centre at the Minoru Centre for Active Living, which cost about $84 million to build, opened in March 2019 and the fitness centre opened on Jan. 1.
But the aquatic centre remains shuttered and the entire project has been the subject of several lawsuits – one by Stuart Olson against the city, but also several by subcontractors against Stuart Olson. In turn, Stuart Olson has turned around and named the city as a third party responsible for these secondary lawsuits.
As for the second pool problem - in Lap Pool 1 - the statement of defence documents describe how the city was filling it up in February 2019 when they noticed the crawl space below filling with water. This area housed the pool’s mechanical equipment and controls.
When they emptied the pool, they found a crack about half the length of the pool floor.
An investigation into the failure was launched during which time the pool was largely demolished.
The claim by the city is the crack was caused by improper installation of one section of the piping and water-stop flanges, which let water in below the pool, causing pressure and cracking it.
The city claims they asked Stuart Olson several times to fix the pool but the company refused to do so.
In its lawsuit against the city, Stuart Olson claims it incurred extra costs because of the Lap Pool 1 failure, saying it was caused by the city’s negligence in filling the pool, and a “defective and negligently prepared pool foundation and geotechnical design.”
Stuart Olson states they will outline what this cost them before the lawsuit goes to trial.
The city hired another construction company to fix the pool at its own expense with the expectation the Stuart Olson’s insurance company will reimburse the city for some of the cost.
The cost to fix the pool is estimated to be $1.7 million.
Stuart Olson is claiming more than $7 million in damages from the city for the delays in construction of the entire facility.
