Province to Conduct Remediation Program Over Christmas

EDUCATION -Province to Conduct Remediation Program Over Christmas

Two tenders have been awarded at a cost of $430,900 to repair some building joists in 22 schools across the province.

The work will be done over the Christmas holidays so students are not disrupted, Education Minister Jane Purves said today.

"We are confident that problems with roof joists don't pose a danger to students, but they still need to be fixed," the minister said. "We are undertaking an ongoing repair program to see that the work is done with no disruption to students and teachers."

The work announced today will be carried out at 22 schools in five school boards: Halifax, South West, Chignecto-Central, Cape Breton-Victoria and the Conseil Scolaire Acadien Provincial.

This will address about half of the schools on the list of 44 identified in a provincial assessment of buildings with roof joist problems. The first 22 schools were chosen because repairs could be completed quickly.

The total cost of remaining repairs is estimated at $4 million, although some projects may be part of the department's larger school capital construction plans.

Until all the work is completed, school boards have a special maintenance program in place to ensure snow and rain do not build up on school roofs.

Open web steel joists, manufactured by Robb Engineering of Amherst during the 1970s, were used in construction of many public and private buildings in the 1970s. Some of the joists have been found to have faulty welds.

Since 1996, the Government of Nova Scotia has had a remediation program under way to identify and fix the faulty joists in public buildings. The repair phase may be finished as early as next year.

The work on the 22 schools will be done by Marid Industries Ltd. of Windsor Junction.