GYM 45% COMPLETE

After a tour of the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex yesterday, Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth Stephen Lashley and Ambassador of The People’s Republic of China to Barbados, Wang Ke, told the media that the ongoing renovation project is 45 per cent completed.

With a July 15, 2017 end date projected, the ambassador is confident that the repairs are on schedule and will be finished in time.

Contractor and Project Manager for the joint venture between Barbados and The People’s Republic of China, Zhang Sheng, gave a more detailed assessment of the Maintenance and Improvement of Barbados Garfield Sobers Gymnasium Project.

He explained that the intended changes were divided into three sections – the Main Building Works; Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) Works; and External Works.
Main Building Works include the renovation of the water-proofing system for the roof with the addition of a rubber layer, repainting with anti-rust and fire proof paint of the roof truss, replacement of the ceiling and the acoustic wall, replacement of the playground wood floor in the main hall with a new frame installed to meet international specifications and renovation of the main floor and external walls.

For the MEP section, the work to be done was on replacing the air-conditioning system (chillers, Air Handling Units (AHU), pipes), hot water system, distribution board and the ELV System (fire alarm system, video monitoring system, public address system, mobile conference system). The electricity bill of the sports complex will be significantly reduced and then possibly non-existent as installation of the 100kW of the photovoltaic power generation system with solar panels is on the cards to be finished by year end. This is one of the two newly added features under External Works being done by the engineering company China Shanxi Construction Engineering (Group) Corp which has been tasked with the renovations. The other new addition is 54 sets of solar street lights.

With 126 days left on the time-table, only reinforced concrete foundation of the photovoltaic system, the installation of the air curtain machine, the installation of the new low voltage switchboard and the installation of the high and low voltage cable tray have been 100% completed. While a majority of others are at 90%, a few still stand at around 50% completion.

The Chinese Ambassador Wang Ke and Contractor Sheng have the utmost confidence that the Bds$19 million People’s Republic of China grant project will be completed in its entirety by the scheduled date. The only exception would be the photovoltaic system which has a timetable of year-end. (AS)