Aftermath of the partial collapse of the underground parkade roof at the City Gardens site in downtown Kamloops/via anonymous submission
Engineering assessments are underway following the collapse of a small section of the north parkade roof at the City Gardens site in downtown Kamloops.
It comes as the owner of the project says the first thing that went through his mind was “was anybody hurt.”
Crews were doing a concrete pour on the cement ceiling of the underground parkade on Wednesday morning when it suddenly gave away as crews were working on it.
The President of the Kelson Group, Jason Fawcett, telling Radio NL a day after the incident that there were a “few” members of the work crew that were caught up in the collapse.
“The concrete gave way and the rebar basically caught them. Everybody’s safe. Everybody’s was ok,” Fawcett told Radio NL in an interview on Thursday. “A couple of them had to climb up a little bit as the rebar sort of bent down. We’re just thankful that everybody’s ok.”
He does say there was one injury of note.
“There was one worker that did twist his knee. He went to the hospital to get an x-ray, and he’s apparently ok. He’s probably going to take a couple of days off.”
Fawcett says its not clear when crews will be able to get back on to — and into — the parkade to not only fix the roof, but clean up the floor below.
“WorkSafe[BC] was already on sight, and we’ve got engineers on site. They’re reviewing the situation,” noted Fawcett. “We’ve got some concrete that’s fallen on to the second level of the parkade that we now have to clean up.”
Crew members emerging from the collapse of a parkade roof under construction at the City Gardens site in downtown Kamloops/via Kamscan on X
“I would like to thank our on-site team of safety representatives and superintendents for their diligence in building out and implementing good safety practices, so that when an event occurs like it did, we can react quickly to ensure the safety of those on-site.”
When Radio NL arrived at the site around 1pm on the day of the collapse, the gaping hole had already been fully covered with an orange tarp, and crews were still working on the facade of the existing tower to the south.
“Because of the small area that this incident impacted, once cleared to do so, crews were able to continue their work on other parts of the development, including Trillium tower,” confirmed Fawcett.
He says while it will slowdown the end of building the parkade, the overall construction schedule they’re working with is still in place.
“This had nothing to do with the buildings themselves,” said Fawcett. “The parkade structure is separate to the buildings. We don’t expect to put a building on top of that location for at least a couple of years.”
-
- Site of parkade roof collapse at City Gardens site covered by an orange tarp, with existing Trillium tower behind/via Paul James
-
- Site of parkade roof collapse at City Gardens site covered by an orange tarp/via Paul James
The City Gardens project is the largest property development in Kamloops, with initial plans to develop as many as 525 units out of six different buildings on the site, which would include two, 20 story towers.
The original concept was to keep both towers as strata, with the smaller, wood-framed buildings surrounding them to be made available as rental stock.
However, changes in the landscape of the housing market have prompted Kelson Group to switch its strategy, with expectations the 2nd tower, which will be over top of where the roof collapse took place, is going to be marketed as rental to begin with, with Fawcett telling Radio NL in September 2024, that the company was going to keep its options open.
Those who purchased homes in the Trillium tower are expected to be able to take control of their units and begin moving in later this year.
Artist rendering of City Garden building which is going to eventually cover the parkade where the roof collapse took place on Wednesday/via City Gardens
