Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Insurance is expected to pay for most of the $65,000 repair project.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- Schools Superintendent Dante Zambrini says the ceiling in the C.H. Campbell Elementary School gym has been repaired and is no longer in danger of collapsing.
Zambrini noted that in fact, the ceiling is "sturdier than it originally was."
In early March, a pupil noticed that the wooden beam in the center of the gym ceiling was split. It looked as if the bottom of the beam had become separated from its top.
The gym and surrounding rooms were closed, and over the summer, construction crews worked to repair and shore up all the beams in the ceiling.
Zambrini said the gym should be ready to open soon after school starts Sept. 2.
Why it cracked
The center beam cracked as a result of the "extreme" amount of ice and snow on the gym's pitched roof last winter, Zambrini said. He said there was no way to predict that the beam would split, and that the beams passed inspection by engineers and architects when C.H. Campbell was expanded in the late 1990s.
After the center beam split, school officials found that many of the other beams had cracked.
The V-shaped beams are made of wooden planks that are 2 inches tall by 8 inches wide and stacked on top of each other. They were installed when the gym was constructed in the early 1960s.
Zambrini said the first step in fixing the ceiling was to push the bottom of the split and cracked beams back into place. School was closed on the day the beam was pushed into place in case the ceiling shifted and collapsed.
Construction crews then drilled holes in the bottom of the beams and inserted inch-thick steel rods. About 20 steel rods were inserted into the center beam; fewer were placed in the beams that were less damaged.
Crews squirted industrial glue around the rods.
The glue then traveled through the cracks in each beam.
Checking the work
Engineers were on hand to ensure that the work was being done property, Zambrini said.
An insurance inspector also approved of the work and checked to make sure other wooden beams in the school were not in danger of cracking, he said.
The last step in the repair process was to connect steel cables to the ends of each beam. The cables were tightened to pull the beams into the V-shape of the roof.
Zambrini said the repairs were expected to cost about $65,000, and that between 85 percent to 90 percent of that bill would be paid by the school district's liability insurance. The district would pay the remaining $6,500 to $10,000, he said.
hill@vindy.com