Nova Scotia students check arena structures

Students at Dalhousie University Department of Civil Engineering will be checking the soundness of arena structures in Nova Scotia over the next few years. The province’s Sports and Recreation Minister, Rodney MacDonald, announced the Provincial Arena Structural Safety Assessment Program on June 13. Done in collaboration with the Recreation Facility Association of Nova Scotia and the Sport and Recreation Commission, the program arranges for students, working under the guidance of their professors, to inspect and provide recommendations on the 78 arenas in the province. Most of the arenas were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. MacDonald said “It’s an excellent hands-on learning opportunity for engineering students.”
The students will work under the guidance of Dr. Farid Taheri, head of the civil engineering department and Professor Jane Thorburn. The work will include on-site inspections, studying drawings and comparing them to the “as built” details, analytical calculations and computer-aided analysis. The students will also compare the building codes used in the original structural design with the present building code, and prepare engineering reports.