Developer sees photographs, agrees there are ‘areas of concern’

Wendy Mclellan
Province

Construction continues at the Olympic athlete’s village on the south side of False Creek in Vancouver. Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann, The Province

After stalling for more than two weeks, Vancouver’s Olympic Village developers and city officials met early yesterday with the union that blew the whistle on shoddy pipe insulation at the site.

The hastily arranged meeting between Millennium Development, the city and the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Union Local 118 came after The Province learned that workers were tearing down walls at the site to wrap water pipes that should have been insulated before the drywall was put up.

The Province first reported allegations of improperly insulated water pipes at the Olympic Village site two weeks ago. Since then, the city and the developer have insisted there are no problems at the site, but they also wouldn’t meet with the union to see their evidence.

That all changed yesterday.

“They said they wanted as much information as they can to identify problems and correct any that are there,” said Lee Loftus, business manager for the Vancouver-based union local.

“They wouldn’t agree there were problems, but they’re going to investigate the photos and take care of any problems they can confirm.”

Loftus said the union brought all of their photos to the meeting at a Denny’s restaurant and described each example of poorly insulated pipes. Some of the photos show drywall installed over bare pipes, others show pipes that are insulated where they’re visible outside the walls and others show pipes that are mostly insulated, but not completely.

Insulating hot-water pipes reduces energy loss; insulating cold-water pipes prevents condensation from pooling behind walls where it will create mould and mildew problems for condo owners a few years from now.

Loftus said he agreed to provide more details today about the photographs so Millennium could direct its contractors to the problem areas.

Contractors have been at work the past couple of weeks, on wrapping pipes already hidden behind drywall.

“They have been going at it in finished suites,” according to one tradesman working on the Millennium Water development on Southeast False Creek. “We saw them taking down drywall, cutting through walls, and the insulators waiting to put in the insulation.”

Several workers had reported the activity on the construction site, but were worried they would be fired if their employer learned they had spoken to the media.

The union made the issue public after trying — and failing — to get the developer to respond to their concerns. The Province first reported the union’s allegations June 28 and Millennium responded with a promise to review its construction- review process at the village.

Millennium’s preliminary report was delivered to city hall July 3, showing no evidence of uninsulated water pipes. Millennium was expected to deliver a final report this Friday, and the city had promised to make the results public, but Roger Bayley, design manager for Millennium, said there will not be a final report. He said the site will be continually assessed during the construction process.

“We have identified some areas the union had expressed concern about and instructed that those things be rectified,” Bayley said.

After telling reporters last week the union’s allegations were an “unsubstantiated rumour,” Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said yesterday the city had taken the issue seriously and, after the developer checked further, pipe- insulation problems were found.

“The issues raised by the union definitely moved us to further the due diligence and as a result of the cross-checking, we’ve identified areas for improvement and the developer is making those improvements and giving new instructions to the contractors, so that taxpayers can rest assured that their investment is being managed appropriately,” Robertson said.

After yesterday’s meeting, Loftus said he is confident construction practices improved but only after the issue was brought to public attention.

“I believe construction practices have been better in the last couple of weeks, and I expect they will fix what wasn’t done right,” Loftus said.

“I think this [publicity] has made a difference.”

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Real Estate Related. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.