friends of dufferin grove park
Rink Problem Letters, May 2004

Over the past winter the cooling system of the rink was losing a reported 80 gallons of brine a day, purportedly as the result of a tiny drill hole. Now long discoloured cracks have appeared on the pads. The service pipes look bad, and the rink house sank some inches a few years ago. We've been trying for some time now to get information, and to convince Parks and Rec to have an engineering evaluation done.

Here is some correspondence about the issue.

On this page:

For correspondence about this issue with Toronto City Councillor Adam Giambrone and with Bob Crump, the manager of Technical Services for Parks and recreation, see Correspondence with the City.

Joe Pantalone

Good morning Mr. Kershaw,

I am writing today regarding a problem brought to my attention by both Councillor Adam Giambrone and by community members.

Councillor Giambrone is deeply concerned about the ice rink maintenance problems which includes Dufferin Grove and Campbell rinks in Ward 18. I am concerned with Alex Duff rink and Trinity Rink (Ward 19). Perhaps there are others across the city.

The issue is that cracks have appeared on the concrete slab that holds the ice in many of the newly constructed rinks. Reportedly, "Alex Duff rink has long cracks that traverse the slab from one side to the other. ... Many of the cracks (in all the newer rinks) are straight lines that run parallel or at right angles, and they are stained yellowish or, in a few places, red like rust. It's a mystery, especially since the older rinks (the ones that are not cooled by brine but by ammonia) don't have those cracks".

In light of the above and with Councillor Giambrone's support and agreement, I would appreciate answers to the following questions from the Capital Works section of Parks in Economic Development:

1) Why did these cracks emerge? It would seem to me that Parks needs to explore the extend of the problem and determine why exactly this is happening. I understand that from Councillor Giambrone' s office, that Parks is aware of the problem and is preparing to issue a tender call or contract, but I am unclear of the time lines. As winter is fast approaching, I would expect that we should the call should be issued sooner rather than later. 2) When exactly will the tender/contract be awarded? 3) As some of these are new rinks, are they still under "warranty"? Is the contractor liable to repair the rinks? And if the "warranty" has expired, why was this not followed up right away? 4) Finally, I understand that the new cooling process might be at fault and causing the cracks. Is there any research on the issue that supports this claim? If so, we should both look to the future and take strides to remedy the practices of the recent past.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and I Iook forward to your reply.

Deputy Mayor
Joe Pantalone
416-392-4009
Councillor_Pantalone@toronto.ca

For correspondence about this issue with Toronto City Councillor Adam Giambrone and with Bob Crump, the manager of Technical Services for Parks and recreation, see Correspondence with the City.

Friends of Dufferin Grove Park

May 20, 2004

Mr. Steve McCloud,
President,
CIMCO,
65 Villiers
Toronto M5A 3S1.

Dear Mr.McCloud

I have a question about a possibly serious problem with some Toronto outdoor artificial ice rinks, which I'm hoping you can answer.

Context: I am part of a community group called "Friends of Dufferin Grove Park," which has collaborated with Toronto Parks and Recreation in the running of our local ice rink for about ten years now. This past winter we had a persistent brine leak that was diagnosed, after the ice went out, as being caused by a 2mm drill hole in one of the pipes. Because I was puzzled about the drill hole, I looked at the rink more carefully than I have before. I was surprised to see that the concrete pad had so many long cracks. The cracks had a yellowish stain all along their length and many of them (not all) were straight lines or at right angles. There was also some red staining in a few spots, presumably from rusting re-bar, since the pipes are PVC. The rink is only eleven years old.

I went to other rinks in the west end (Christie Pits, Campbell Ave., and Trinity Bellwoods) and found to my even greater surprise that much newer rinks than ours also have long cracks - some going right across the width of the pad - and also showing the yellowish coloration. They are not as bad as ours but it's strange. When I looked at the three old (ammonia) rinks in the west end (Ramsden at Yonge and Davenport, Wallace Emerson at Dufferin and Dupont, and Alexandra at Bathurst and Dundas), I saw very few cracks, even though those rinks are so much older.

Our group's relationship with the city's technical services has been rather frosty for a few years (it didn't help when our compressor room floor sank four inches in 1999 and we found that some previous advice from CIMCO had been ignored). This time again we couldn't get answers to our questions. A shinny hockey player and park friend who is a structural engineer with a concrete specialty took a look, and agreed we really had to have this investigated. So I left a phone message and then sent an e-mail to John Bell, your service manager, to see if we could get a rink consultation from CIMCO. But I guess that's a conflict for your company and so the answer must be "no," (we never actually got an answer).

Several city councillors are now getting involved, including our deputy mayor, and it may be that Mr. Bell will hear from them directly soon. But I am wondering in a general way: is it possible that brine rinks have a problem when they're outdoors? "Google" has not turned up much for me. Meantime some of our cracks are getting dirt in them and soon we may see the first plants rooting there. I hope you can let me know if this has been a problem you have encountered before. (Or let me know that we shouldn't be concerned.)

Jutta Mason
Friends of Dufferin Grove Park

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