AFTER a seven-year lobbying effort by the North Vancouver school district, Argyle secondary has been earmarked for seismic upgrading - and perhaps complete replacement.
The 55-year-old facility was among 14 schools recently named by the Ministry of Education as its top priorities for earthquake safety improvements. The school district has been asking the province to replace the aging structure since 2005.
The list of schools was released following the completion of a comprehensive survey of B.C.'s schools by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. and UBC's civil engineering department. The study was an outgrowth of recent improvements in the science of earthquake safety, according to the authors.
"Since the onset of the seismic mitigation program in 2005," said Carlos Ventura, director of UBC's Earthquake Engineering Research Facility, in a release, "we have learned more about the nature of earthquakes, how structures behave during these kinds of events, and how to predict their behaviour."
The engineering survey also identified portions of Handsworth, Balmoral and Windsor that are at risk. Province-wide, 152 schools have at least one unsafe building.
John Lewis, North Vancouver's superintendent of schools, said the province has earmarked $21 million for Argyle, although he stressed that number is "very preliminary."
"The prime driver of this process is the safety of students," he said. "From a seismic perspective, this is a high-risk building. We need to undertake a fairly detailed study to see what the approach should be and what the likely costs would be. It could be much greater than $21 million. If it becomes significantly greater, then it might suggest that an alternative is to look at a full replacement of the school. If it's 50 per cent of the cost of a replacement building, you may wish to pursue the seismic upgrade. If you're getting towards 75 per cent, you may wish to have a conversation about the options for replacement."
Three of Argyle's seven "blocks," comprising roughly 75 per cent of the school, were constructed from un-reinforced concrete blocks, which perform badly during earthquakes. But these buildings can be upgraded in place by adding bracing and inserting steel rods into the concrete. This was the approach taken with Windsor secondary in 2006, at a cost of $10 million.
Until that detailed study is complete, said Lewis, it's really anyone's guess what the project will look like or what the final price will be. Carson Graham secondary, he pointed out, was supposed to receive a $9-million upgrade but engineers decided on a $36-million replacement instead.
The school district hopes Argyle gets similar treatment.
"The school is 55 years old," said Lewis. "It is difficult from a functional perspective. . . . A 2012 or a 2014 school would be far superior in many ways."
In addition to examining Argyle's physical condition, the province will be reviewing its student numbers and the demographics of the surrounding area, which Lewis said is standard procedure for any major capital project. Before the ministry committed to replacing Carson Graham, it pressed the school district to close the half-empty Balmoral middle school, although that building will get a new lease on life as home to the district's alternative programs. Argyle's numbers, said Lewis, have been "very stable" at around 1,500 students.
If the province ultimately decides to replace the school, it's possible the school district will be expected to find a portion of the funding, and one possibility for raising that money could be the sale of one of the 11 properties the district identified as surplus last year.
But all of these issues will have to wait at least a year while the Argyle buildings are examined.
"The announcement is really just the start of the process," Lewis said.
