March 12, 2010

ROOF TILE MANAGEMENT

The War Memorial arch in Woodstock took three months and cost $250,000 to restore, but the cost was insignificant compared to the sacrifice of those it honours. It was rebuilt at a different location.

FEATURE | Concrete/Masonry

War Memorial arch in Woodstock, Ontario is restored

DAN O’REILLY

correspondent

The inscription on the World War I memorial arch at Southside Park in Woodstock, Ont. pays tribute to the area’s veterans of that conflict.

Today, the community’s pledge to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice lives on, embodied in the way the city and consulting and contracting officials overcame numerous obstacles to preserve and reconstruct the historic structure, which had been deteriorating.

Mississauga-based Roof Tile Management spent over three months restoring and rebuilding it about five metres away from its original location. Locally based Pow Petermann Consulting Engineers was the consultant.

Constructed in 1925, the arch consists of two rubble stone pillars supporting a concrete beam bearing a two-line inscription. The first line reads: 1914-18. The second line reads: Truth ... Duty ... Valour.

Over the decades, the beam had deteriorated to the point where major repairs were required, says Bob McFarland, the city’s director of community services.

“We noticed sections of the beam on the ground about 2005,” he said. “Rust penetrated because it had been originally built with uncoated rebar — practice at the time.”

Also, the twin pillars, with loose rubble stone piece cores, had been badly damaged over the years from being hit by snowploughs and cars.

The reconstruction and preservation of the arch was a multi-phase operation, says Antonio Roias, project director, Roof Tile Management.

Using a 40-ton crane, a crew removed the beam and took it to the company’s headquarters in Mississauga but it was so badly deteriorated it couldn’t be saved.

“The project had to be temporarily halted until we received the city’s approval to build what is basically a new beam,” Roias said.

As that process was unfolding, the pillars were being carefully dismantled. This was no easy task, since each one of the thousands of rubble stones had to numbered and photographed.

Using that documentation, work crews rebuilt the pillars at the new location the city had selected to improve traffic site lines and lessen the chance they would again be hit by vehicles. The new site necessitated the construction of footings, the installation of storm drains and other work. Unlike the original structure, the stones were clad around a concrete infill column, says Roias.

The goal was to insert the stones back into their original location or as close as possible using the numbering and photograph system. Even with that documentation, returning each and every one to their exact same spot wasn’t always possible, says Roias. “Each was varied in shape and configuration.”

When the pillars reached the 15-foot-high mark the new beam was inserted into place with the 40-ton crane. Constructing that new beam with 32mpa concrete was fairly straightforward. The real challenge was replicating — as closely as possible — the original appearance of the inscription and the positioning of the words.

Each letter of the three-word inscription was made with lead coated copper and then attached to the beam. Then the concrete and the inscription were painted with a silicate-based paint. “It (the paint) is breathable, which chemically bonds and penetrates with the surface, with the result it becomes part of the surface.”

Once that phase was completed, the construction of the 22-foot-high pillars resumed. They were capped with copper roofs, while copper flashing was also placed on the top side of the beam for protection from the elements, says Roias.

With the new foundation and other work, the project price was approximately $250,000, which was more than the city had originally anticipated.

However, city council was stalwart and remained dedicated to the project. Woodstock obtained a $25,000 maximum allowable restoration grant from the Department of National Defence, says McFarland.

“The arch has a great emotional appeal in the community and you can’t put a monetary value on it.”

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