Construction of Conference Centre to Begin Spring 2009

Kimberley’s Paralympic Conference Centre , to be located at the base of the ski hill, should be ready for next ski season. The project is now entering the tendering stage and construction is scheduled to begin spring 2009.

The Paralympic committee is happy with the final draft plan, says Mayor Jim Ogilvie. The architect is currently finishing the blueprints and final tender documents.

“These delays have actually turned out to be good for us,” Ogilvie said. “We couldn’t come in on budget before and I made a promise that we wouldn’t go ahead unless we could come in on budget. But the new price of materials and availability of labour will help us. And it will create some jobs at a time when they are really needed.”

One reason for the delay was trying to come up with a design for the building to accommodate the two separate functions of the building. It became clear that this building was going to need two storeys, one for each function, but that brought on accessibility issues.

The revised plans take advantage of the location at the base of the ski hill, allowing the building to be built into the hill. This allows for the Paralympic centre on the upper level with access to and from the ski lift level, and the conference centre on the lower level with access from the parking lot.

This is a radical departure from the original plans, which had the conference centre on the top level.

“It became clear we needed a different design for accessibility,” Ogilvie said. “When the Paralympic Centre was on the bottom there were real problems with getting onto the lift level. And if you had a large number of people in wheelchairs, getting them into two elevators is a major problem.”

With the new design community access to the conference centre will be through the parking lot level, but a paralympian skier will be able to go down a ramp from the level.

Ogilvie says that construction will begin in the spring of 2009 and the centre should be ready for next ski season.