Southeast Event Centre readying the concrete for their new ice-plant

Construction is progressing steadily on the Southeast Event Centre. 

The City's Corporate Services Manager, Adam Thiessen, gave Steinbach City Council an update at Tuesday evening’s council meeting. 

Thiessen says one of the major components of the building is structure and framing. 

“That's one of the bigger things we've seen in the last few months. In January, we had our first set of steel trusses go up and then now we can see they're almost all up for the arena area except for the last set, which will likely be done in in the next couple weeks.” 

He adds the concrete risers and the deck should also be done by the end of April, and the next thing to go up regarding this component of the building is the vertical steel and roofing structures for the atrium and gym area. 

The plumbing and electrical work for the dressing rooms were worked on throughout the winter. 

Thiessen provides an update on the ice plant. 

“The old ice plant has now been decommissioned, and the new room for all that is going to be starting later this week, the concrete will be going in. The hoarding structure had been put together to keep the concrete warm enough while it settled and solidified for the lobby floor. It's done now.” 

He says back in December, they mostly had concrete masonry units set up in the arena starting to see the bleachers, but now they are about 85 percent done with that part. 

“It's all taking shape. The actual ice surface floor, there's still a lot of work to do there with concrete, but it’s all moving along.” 

Thiessen adds the roof is even half done for sealing and keeping the water out as they start to put in the electrical and mechanical exterior and weatherproofing and sheeting.  

"You could start to see the insulation and strapping on that going up, so the final metal sheeting should be going up in the next month or two as well.” 

So far they have spent $32.1 million, or about 46.5 percent of the total project cost. 

Thiessen explains Paul and his team have pre-purchased a lot of the materials to lock in lower pricing. 

“If you look at it now, it doesn't look like 46.5 percent of the building, but a lot of the reason for that is because we've pre-purchased a lot of materials to lock in pricing before inflation does its work.” 

Thiessen says they are doing very well with keeping on track for construction. 

“We had a great winter, we're not far behind. Certainly still shooting for fall, or maybe early winter, is kind of where they're at now.” 

He says that it won’t be long before residents will get a feel for what the final building is going to look like. 

“The big, exciting thing we're going to see soon is going to be the sheeting coming up on the arena and then really starting to see the structure of the gym and the atrium.” 

Mayor Earl Funk says once the Southeast Event Centre opens up, they will need to hold several tour dates. 

“Every municipality wants to come through and see it. There's lots of interest. This is not just creating buzz in our community, it's creating buzz in our province. I believe this is an Event Centre that will be known throughout our province.” 

To see the progress for yourself, watch SteinbachOnline’s live stream of the construction site from the top of the Steinbach Credit Union.