Faulty truss that forced 500 Calgary municipal workers to relocate may be fixed by summer

A two-stage fix is coming for a deficient 30,000-kilogram steel truss in Calgary's Municipal Building that forced 500 city workers to relocate into temporary workspaces last fall.

Last September, the city announced it detected a structural deficiency with the truss on an upper floor at the north end of the building. The truss was installed incorrectly in 1983.

While the city said there was no danger of a collapse, it closed that end of the building as a precaution. The affected area was later expanded.

In all, 500 city workers, including four city councillors and their staffs, have been forced into temporary workspaces elsewhere.

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DarrelBell with the city's facilities management group toldCBC News that over the next three weekends, a temporary support beam will be going in on the roof of the nearby Administration Building.

That beam will link with the corner of the Municipal Building, which is above the admin building.

The idea is to have the temporary shoring beam take the weight off the troubled truss, he said.

"The preparation is extensive. This is difficult stuff. This is a complex structural assembly because it's free-hanging," said Bell.

Once that end of the building is shored up, the city workers will be able toreturn to their workspaces over the next few months.

"We need to bring them back in a staged approach so we don't disrupt any public services at all," said Bell.

Over the summer, work crews will go in to fix the truss itself.

The details of that project are still being worked out.

Bell said it will involve workers going in on the13thand14thfloors of the building which are mechanical floors to access the truss.

Blue netting has been installed on the outside of the building as a precaution to catch anything that might come loose while the work is going on.

Once the repairs are done and the temporary support beam is removed, Bellsaid no one should be able to tell there was any problem with the building.

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