LAWSUIT OVER WINNIPEG STADIUM

WINNIPEG (CP) -The owners of the stadium where the Winnipeg Blue Bombers play have filed a lawsuit that maintains the architect and builder should be made to pay for extensive repairs.


Triple B Stadium alleges that the repairs were necessary due to faulty design and construction by Raymond S.C. Wan Architect and Stuart Olson Construction.


The $200-million stadium opened in 2013 and is to be the site for this fall’s Canadian Football League Grey Cup game.


It has been plagued by problems such as leaky luxury suite roofs, insufficient insulation to keep plumbing operational in winter and poor drainage.


It also needed immediate renovations to make it usable for concerts and its press box was unheated.
Stuart Olson says it does not comment on matters involving litigation.


Wade Miller, president of the Winnipeg Football Club, says in a statement that his organization fully supports the legal action.


Triple B Stadium includes a report from a Winnipeg architectural and engineering firm in its statement of claim filed Wednesday.


“During the design and construction of the stadium, there was insufficient attention to the mechanics of water drainage and heating, there was poor execution of critical details and poor construction quality control,” Triple B quotes from the report in a news release.


The statement of claim lists five pages of defects and deficiencies.


Triple B is a consortium that includes representatives from the Manitoba government, the City of Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba and the Winnipeg Football Club, which owns the Bombers and runs the stadium.


“While we are extremely disappointed that we have had to deal with continuous and ongoing issues since we became the primary tenant in 2013, we believe today is an important step forward in attempting to have them resolved,” Miller said.


Triple B Stadium chair Andrew Konowalchuk told CJOB Radio in Winnipeg that it’s unclear how much it will cost for all the remediation work.


“Triple B and the Winnipeg Football Club spent $4.7 million worth of remedial work that either has been complete or is underway currently,” he said. “Further testing is required to get a true value of the cost for remediation going forward.”


Konowalchuk said the building is safe, but the problems need to be fixed to prevent more issues in the future.


A statement of claim contains allegations that have not been proven in court.


(Global Winnipeg, CJOB)

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Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

I Googled the Architect Raymond S.C. Wan. No experience in major projects especially stadium design. Looks like a local boy. Could..gasp..politics be the reason they chose him? His major project was the 6 story Grand Hotel or maybe the Steinbach Credit Union Head Office. No wait maybe the Manitoba Liquor Control Head Office building. WOW Wonder why they have design problems?

Marc
Marc
9 years ago

It's funny how people here were complaining we were spending so much on a stadium compared to Winnipeg. I guess we now know why!!!!

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

I was worried that Winnipeg's Stadium was designed by the same people as our stadium.

Thankfully, that isn't the case.

HKS and PCL seem to be specialists in the Stadium design business, as opposed to this Winnipeg Owned Group.

I also remember hearing about partially blocked views from many seats in Winnipeg as well. I hope that isn't a problem in Regina's new digs.

Can't wait for our stadium to be ready, and I'm glad we have a whole winter to work out the kinks after it's substantially ready late in 2016.

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

And it is terrible for afternoon games on tv. The shadowing was awful for the banjo bowl last year.

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

It is unfortunate because the concept and design of the stadium in Winnipeg are top notch; it is a very nice stadium to watch a game in. The execution and creation were unfortunately far from ideal; you can tell as soon as you are in the stadium looking at massive cracks everywhere. Lets hope that the superficial problems don't indicate more serious structural problems.

Stranger

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

Regina's open stadium design a invitation to the harsh weather elements making it suspect to long term maintenance costs.

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

Those costs will be tiny compared to heating costs in the winter and cooling costs in the summer if it was a dome!

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

Lowest bidder, cost efficiencies, git er done attitude sure sounds familiar. Drainage problems? Can the new regina taxpayer stadium prevent the street sewer backup into the lower concourse? When it comes to the annual spring flood sewer backup the subsequent walk through does not have the same atmosphere if entering a new stadium. Can't see regina doing a better job than Winnipeg.

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

not to mention the havoc its going to wreak sewer backup wise for the surrounding neighbourhood cathedral.

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

I feel like there is about a 99% chance PCL does a better job in Regina than Stuart Olson in Winnipeg based on what's happened in Wpg.

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

To the Anon that said, "Can't see regina doing a better job than Winnipeg". I will suggest that, easily, Regina can do a better job than winnipeg!

Some day you might even want to afford Regina the respect and write it with a capital letter… I can say that I felt brainless writing winnipeg without a capital letter… quite disrespectful.

Kel in Victoria