Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 10, 2015
“Inexcusable” Pan Am Stadium delays continue
The city has cancelled community events booked for its new $145 million stadium this month as construction — and damage repairs — continues on the long-delayed project.
City Pan Am committee chair Lloyd Ferguson said Thursday the 22,500 seat stadium is “very, very close” to being done, more than nine months after it was supposed to be completed.
Ferguson said a critical building inspection walk-through is scheduled for Monday and an occupancy permit could be granted within a couple of weeks.
Pan Am Stadium Chronology
But he added contractor Ontario Sports Solutions has also been busy fixing water damage caused by faulty water seals in the east stands on top of finishing touches to the new stadium.
Last summer, the beleaguered contractor also had to repair $25,000 in damages from a fire that broke out in a ventilation room just before the Labour Day Classic Ticat game.
Infrastructure Ontario and the contractor can’t hand over the stadium to the city until it achieves “substantial completion,” a contractual threshold that will also trigger more than $80 million in withheld building payments.
Four requests from the contractor for substantial completion have so far been rejected by IO’s independent certifier, according to city staff.
The ongoing delays have forced the city to cancel an unspecified number of community bookings for the stadium and May is currently on hold.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger called that “inexcusable.”
“We’ve been held up for how many months now?” he asked at the committee. “I want to have assurances we’re not going to continue to hold up … community events.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)