The Town of Canmore is looking for a new home for 40 administration staffers after a late-night flood caused significant damage to the Civic Centre last week.
Manager of facilities Stephen Hanus told council Tuesday night (Feb. 4) it may take three to six months to repair damage caused by a failed pipe in the building’s women’s washroom last Friday (Jan. 30) during the early morning hours.
Hanus said administration will have a better idea of timelines for recovery once the mechanical, electrical and information technology systems in the building are fully inspected.
“We still have a few risk factors that could impact the recovery and restoration efforts and those relate to our most technical systems that may be the most challenging to replace and have the longest lead times to get items ordered,” he said. “The good news is that the restoration crews on site … did a marvellous job getting the water out of the building, out of the rugs, dropping down the air humidity and inspecting walls.
“Where it is dry today we are confident mold is not going to be an issue because we got to it quickly.”
The source of the flood, said Hanus, was a T-off line from the main water line along the Walk of Champions, which is the primary source of water to the building.
The six-inch PVC pipe that enters the building in the women’s washroom failed, although the reason for that failure is still under investigation by the insurance adjustor and an engineer. Insurance coverage, he added, includes finding new space for staff, mitigation and recovery costs.
Staff have been relocated either within the Civic Centre or into the Senior’s Centre for the short term.
“We intend on being based out of this temporary location for the next two weeks until we can finalize a more permanent location during restoration efforts,” Hanus said.
Two potential temporary office locations have been identified – the old library and a commercial property in downtown Canmore.
The first indication something was wrong at the Civic Centre came at 2:47 a.m. when the building’s security and fire alarm was triggered. Further alarms and a 911 call from a passerby at 2:59 a.m. occurred before first responders arrived on scene at 3:05 a.m.
Hanus said when the building was entered, a swell of water was encountered and it was at that point staff realized there was a flood event. The entire 17,250 square feet area of the main floor was affected.
While the sprinkler system was shut off and additional water lines shut off, it took until 4:50 a.m. for staff and Epcor to find the source of the flood and shut down the main water line into the building.
“It could have been significantly worse if the water got higher and it ran for a longer period of time,” he said.
Emergency response to the flood included moving computer servers upstairs in the Civic Centre, getting Volker Stevin on scene to address water freezing on the sidewalks and roadways surrounding the building and McKnight Flood Restoration beginning to de-water the building.
“It is a horrible situation, but we have a great deal of good news in the midst of adversity,” Hanus said. “We are very thankful we had no injuries or lives lost; the amount of water that flowed out of that six-inch water line under high pressure could have caused serious injury.”
He added no damage was reported to adjacent businesses and mitigation work began quickly and has been effective so far.
At the same time the Civic Centre flooded, the old library experienced a flood due to a failed hot water tank – and the coincidental nature of the events along with other alarms is under investigation.
“Epcor is obviously fully engaged in this as well because there was a coincidental timing of other alarms so it is unknown whether or not this major pulse of pressure in our building affected other buildings in the Bow Valley area,” Hanus said, adding the connection is purely speculative at this time. “Early indications are they did not notice any pressure or odd peculiarities in their system to indicate a pressure system caused a failure in our building.”
