Investors Group Field repairs to cost more than $35M, province approves loan guarantee

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This article was published 26/10/2015 (3724 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CFL fans will be focused on Investors Group Field as Winnipeg’s new football stadium hosts the 103rd Grey Cup on Nov. 29.

The next day, construction crews will prepare to rip apart the 200-level concourse at the facility, now open for a scant two and a half years.

Stadium repairs originally announced in March will begin after the Grey Cup — at a total cost of no less than $35.3 million.

Premier Greg Selinger’s cabinet has approved a loan guarantee that will allow Investors Group Field owner Triple B Stadium — a shell company representing the city, province, University of Manitoba and Winnipeg Football Club — to begin making $35.3 million worth of repairs to the $209-million facility, which hosted its first event in May 2013.

In March, Triple B Stadium filed a statement of claim against stadium builder Stuart Olson Construction and architect Ray Wan over 42 alleged design and construction deficiencies, including slopes that drain water into the building, the failure to insulate sprinklers and concrete slabs so weak they are “a problem for moving kegs of beer.”

At the time, Triple B Stadium chairman Andrew Konowalchuk said $4.7 million had been spent on remediation efforts but would not place a pricetag on the total repair job.

The provincial loan guarantee spells out the financial scope of the work — but may not wind up being the final tab.

“We don’t have firm figures for everything in place,” Konowalchuk said Monday in an interview. “We made the request in terms of the remediation work we have to undertake.”

The work on the 200-level concourse will begin after the Grey Cup and take place over the winter, he said. Triple B Stadium is not waiting for the resolution of its legal dispute with Stuart Olson and Wan.

“Never mind the court cases and so on. They needed the loan guarantee to get the funds and get started,” said Dawson Trail NDP MLA Ron Lemieux, the provincial minister responsible for sport.

“They have to get on with it. The court case will take care of it. The Manitoba consumer will not be on the hook for these costs.”

The result of the lawsuit is far from certain. In response to Triple B Stadium’s lawsuit, Stuart Olson claimed in an April statement of defence that the Selinger government and Triple B Stadium rushed Investors Group Field to completion and “knowingly approved a design without regard for the problems.”

In his own statement of defence in June, Wan denied responsibility for dozens of alleged design and construction deficiencies at the venue — and blamed Triple B for cracked concrete slabs throughout its concourses.

Problems with the stadium, including improper guardrails and no means of getting concert-goers on and off the field, first emerged when the stadium was under construction. After it opened in 2013, more issues emerged in the form of cracks in the concrete concourses and pooling of water after rainstorms.

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Then in April 2014, when snowmelt infiltrated luxury suites, former city chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl said the stadium had design issues when the plans were handed over to the Winnipeg Football Club. Sheegl also claimed Selinger ignored deficiencies in the stadium design when he chose to forge ahead with construction in the months prior to the 2011 provincial election.

The news of the loan guarantee to bolster further repairs — along with more construction litigation between Stuart Olson and steel fabricator Structal — led the Opposition Progressive Conservatives to renew their call for the provincial auditor to investigate the stadium project.

“It’s unfortunate that weeks before the Grey Cup game is played at Investors Group Field, more troubling information has come to light about repairs needed to the facility,” Tuxedo PC MLA Heather Stefanson said in a statement.

“We hope the NDP government comes clean on what transpired with the stadium planning and construction. The government has to be accountable to taxpayers on this project.”

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca