Construction of PanAm Games venues under budget
July 22, 2014
By
Canadian Consulting Engineer
The organizing committee of Toronto's 2015 PanAm and ParaPan games reported last week that construction is "hitting the home stretch." The TO2015 committee says that so far 53% of the total original capital budget of $730 million has been spent...
The organizing committee of Toronto’s 2015 PanAm and ParaPan games reported last week that construction is “hitting the home stretch.” The TO2015 committee says that so far 53% of the total original capital budget of $730 million has been spent and “the overall building program for the Games is continuing to come in under budget.”
A published table of 14 major venues shows the largest project, the Aquatics Centre and Field House at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus, is projected to cost almost $44 million less than the $249 million estimated in 2011. The Athletics Stadium at York University is projected to cost $7.5 million less than the estimated $53 million. And the Markham badminton, table tennis and water polo centre is also coming in below budget, $7 million below the $86 million estimated in 2011.
The Milton Velodrome cycling track, however, is projected to cost $6 million more than the $50 million projection.
Most of the new venues will reach substantial completion by September this year, almost 10 months before the event. The Games take place July 10-26 and August 7-15, 2015.
The four that won’t be finished until 2015 are the Equestrian Park in Caledon (due by February), the Shooting Centre in Cookstown (also February). The Royal Canadian Henley Rowing course in St. Catharines (April), and the Cross-Country equestrian centre in Mono which will be the last to be completed, scheduled for May next year.
The Games are the first major multi-sport event held in Ontario since 1930. They will involve 7,600 athletes, mostly staying at the athletes’ village in east downtown Toronto.
The 30 venues are dispersed around Toronto and southern Ontario, including Hamilton in the west, Oshawa in the east, and as far north as Haliburton.
Infrastructure Ontario hired consortia using a design-build and finance procurement model for most projects and gave them up to two years to build.
Click here to see an article on the venues in Canadian Consulting Engineer’s March/April 2013 issue.
To build excitement, CISCO unveiled its Toronto 2015 Countdown Clock on July 11 in Nathan Philips Square in front of Toronto City Hall on July 11. The 5.5-metre colourful structure is networked with Cisco’s downtown data centre, operates with five kilometres of fibre optical cable, and incorporates five screens. It is not just a clock, but is intended to demonstrate the “Internet of Everything,” with interactive activities and in-depth information about the event.
