The Wallace Building suffered extensive water damage this past week due to ongoing construction work coupled with excessive rainfall, affecting several classrooms and offices in the building.

Director of Physical Plant Brian Rivers explained that the Wallace Building is currently undergoing construction to add a new floor.

Rivers explained that, in order to achieve this, a number of structural members were opened up so that the steel frame of the building could be extended through the top of the roof.

These openings have not been sealed properly, and when it began to rain on Oct. 25, it caused the building to leak.

Rivers noted on Oct. 28 that most, if not all, of the leaks should had been stopped, and that, though an estimated timeframe could not be provided for repairs, the Wallace Building has taken a top priority.

Rivers stated that in this case, the general contractor awarded the contract for expanding the building was also responsible for ensuring the leaks were fixed, though usually the Physical Plant would take care of repairs because it has an entire team of repair-people on hand.

“They would contact in the off-hours the Central Energy Centre, and during regular working hours contact our dispatch work-order desk and we would send somebody over there immediately,” said Rivers, explaining the process of getting damages to buildings fixed.

The Central Energy Plant powers the campus, and it has staff on hand 24-7 to respond to an emergency. When a work-order is received, its priority depends on what else is going on and if it is creating damage to the facilities, explained Rivers.

“Anything like a water-break, we try and get over there as soon as possible,” explained Rivers.

Most of the Wallace Building has experienced some severe water damage, the majority of it concentrated on the fourth floor and north-end of the building.

Damages to the fourth floor forced students and staff to move their operations to the third floor. Some staff are even required to work from home for the time being, until damages are fixed and offices returned to normal. Certain rooms, such as 315 and 323, might be deemed unsalvageable.

The dean’s office of the faculty of environment, earth and resources was damaged by the leak, and has been temporarily moved to the building’s boardroom in room 453.

Greg McCullough, a research associate at the Wallace Building, told the Manitoban that some classes had to be moved, but it was mostly offices that were affected.

“We had to take everything out and move to other offices, or work from home, until we remove carpets and assess the damages,” shared McCullough.

Although some computers suffered damage, staff worked quickly to protect the rest of the units by covering them in plastic upon hearing about the leaking.

“They’re probably okay; they’re all moved out into different places now. All the equipment is being moved to new storage from the top floor,” said McCullough.

Students who spoke with the Manitoban were unfazed by the leaking, saying that they had been unaffected, or even unaware, of the damage.

“I saw some buckets out yesterday, but I didn’t really see any leaking,” said U1 student Matthew Gemmell.