Rot and asbestos have delayed the completion of revitalization work at White Rock’s museum and archives.
The end date of the project – initially anticipated in March – has been pushed back “a maximum of three weeks” after rotted floor joists and asbestos in floor tiles were discovered, according to the city’s manager.
“It’s only been delayed a couple of weeks – not any great length of time,” Peggy Clark said.
“You never know what you’re going to find in terms of an older building when you start removing walls and things.”
The cost of replacing floor joists and removing asbestos was approximately $65,000, money that is to come out of the project’s contingency budget.
Because “there will be less contingency to do some other things that may have been possible if that hadn’t occurred,” the museum and the project steering committee are looking at ways to save elsewhere, Clark said.
The revitalization work, which will restore the historic 1913 train station’s original breezeway and create space to better accommodate the museum’s collections, is “getting to an exciting stage,” Lynne Sinclair told council Monday, explaining the “slight” delay.
A soft opening is anticipated for July 1, and one of the facility’s first exhibits, Aliens Among Us, is due to open in August.
Sinclair described the new Marine Drive building’s ability to accommodate such travelling exhibits as “a real boon.”
“It will meet museum standards,” she said.
A contract for the project, expected to take six months to complete, was awarded to KDS Construction Ltd. in November.
Total cost is estimated at $1.4 million.
- with files from Hannah Sutherland