Construction of Sudbury’s new events centre picking up pace

Construction is underway at Greater Sudbury’s future event centre site. Steel pilings are being driven 26 to 56 metres into bedrock to secure the foundation.

Plans for the new arena and events centre in downtown Sudbury are moving forward, with construction of the structure’s base.

Antti Vilkko, general manager of community infrastructure with Greater Sudbury, said installation of micro piles will take about five months.

“We’ll start to see some concrete and rebar installation starting in May and structural steel is targeted to start in August,” Vilkko said.

“By this time next year, most of the shell of the building is anticipated to be up, which will be quite exciting.”

The city says the $200 million project will be broken up into 14 milestones, with the last one being opening day in the fall of 2028.

PCL, a Western Canadian-based construction company, won the contract to build the new arena, as well as the cultural hub that’s being installed in Tom Davies Square.

10 major milestones

IPCL is focused on the first two milestones, including erecting piles into bedrock 26 to 56 metres deep to support the structure.

“They’re 10-inch steel pipes that get filled with grout, and so that creates that solid foundation for the building,” Vilkko said. “It is founded on bedrock, even though there’s a lot of poor-quality soil above it.”

While PCL is based in Western Canada, locals will work on the project, as well.

“PCL has been reaching out to all the contractors in the industry to get pricing from all the available contractors and suppliers,” said Vilkko.

“Obviously, we’re looking for the best value and our local contracting group, so I think they have that competitive advantage just by being local.”

More pricing details will come as the work progresses, but so far, Vilkko said the project is on time and on budget.