Damaged sports dome re-inflated

The big East Hants balloon has been re-inflated.

“All the repairs have not been done,” Scott Forward, executive director of the East Hants Arena Association, said of the air- inflated dome that is part of the arena complex in Lantz.

“Phase 1 was about getting it upright, inflated again and assessing the damage on the inside. That was completed almost a month ago now.”

The dome, a heavy vinyl canopy that covers the 100-by-60-metre artificial turf field below, was brought to the ground in a midMarch windstorm.

The unrelenting wind caught a suspected minor hole in the canopy and ripped it into a gaping 20-by-12-metre breach.

The field regularly attracts about 1,400 users weekly, some of them just to walk the track that rims the field and others to play soccer, football, Frisbee, rugby, baseball, softball, field hockey and golf.

All that activity has been shut down since the dome collapsed.

A sign at the arena entrance Thursday announced a June 25 re-opening of the dome and thanked users for their continued patience.

“I cannot say enough about our clients and our user groups,” Forward said. “They have been excellent as far as understanding goes.”

He said there is never a good time of year to be shut down for three months, but the forced closure came at a time that is not overly busy for the dome.

“As spring approaches, people are wanting to be outdoors more than they want to be indoors.

Certainly, people understand what we’ve been dealing with here.

It certainly impacts some of our users but it is slow compared to our peak time, which would be November through to the end of March.”

One of about 2,000 air-inflated domes in North America, the East Hants facility was purchased from and assembled by the Farley Group of Ontario.

Forward estimated that when the dome was added to the arena complex about six years ago, it cost about $3 million, including the excavation, preparation and artificial turf.

The fabric that encloses the dome cost about $1.5 million.

The Farley Group has worked on the repairs to the fabric and will continue to work on the installation of new lights and fixtures, Forward said.