This is the hole being dug for the underground parking for the UBCO tower that has led to at least two neighbouring buildings being closed because of structural damage.

(ROB MUNRO / iNFOnews.ca)

The Royal Canadian Legion in downtown Kelowna is now closed due to concerns about structural damage caused by UBC Okanagan digging an underground parking lot for it's downtown campus next door.

“There’s been some damage done and the engineers, because of the holidays, decided that they should close it because they didn’t know if there would be more movement over the holidays and there would be nobody to take care of it,” Lorne Thompson, chair of the Legion’s building committee, told iNFOnews.ca.

“Out of an abundance of caution, they shut it down.”

The Legion announced on its Facebook page on Dec. 15 that it was closing and looking for other locations to hold events like meat draws, dinners and dances.

Thompson said UBCO was very helpful in finding places so most of those events were able to go ahead.

The Legion was scheduled to be closed for much of the Christmas holidays.

Its early shutdown followed the evacuation of the building across Doyle Avenue from the UBCO construction site in late November because of concerns about structural damage there.

READ MORE: Workers in downtown Kelowna building forced out as UBCO digs deeper

Thompson didn’t go into details about the latest damage to the Legion but when told that residents of the new Hadgraft Wilson Place next door were having problems closing and locking doors and were getting large cracks in interior walls, he said the Legion was experiencing similar damage.

This photo shows damage inside the new Hagraft Wilson Place.

Image Credit: Submitted

UBCO is digging down four storeys for the parking garage for the 43-storey tower and is expected to keep digging into February before it starts sealing the site. Normally, given the high water table in downtown Kelowna, large buildings are built over surface parking podiums.

“Soil settling during a large excavation like this one is common and was anticipated during the planning process,” Nathan Skolski, UBCO’s associate director of public affairs, said in an email to iNFOnews.ca in November.

He also wrote at that time that there were 100 sensors on buildings stretching about a block in all directions of the site but has not said why they did not detect the damage that led to the closing of the building across the street from the site.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the Legion has voluntarily and temporarily closed, so that additional assessments and building reinforcement can take place," Skolski wrote in an email this week. "We are also taking advantage of low occupancy during the holiday period to continue reinforcement and assessment work at the McWilliams Centre and 1405 Saint Paul.

"We are very conscious that this situation may cause concern for other properties in the area. We do not anticipate impacts beyond the Legion, the McWilliams Centre and 1405 Saint Paul; nor is there any concern for public safety."

UBCO has also sent "sealed memos" to Pathways Abilities Society from the structural and geotechnical engineers confirming its safety and stability, Skolski added.

Some residents of Pathways' Hadgraft Wilson Place have had trouble getting doors to open or lock but were not willing to speak on record.

Charisse Daley, executive director of Pathways that opened the six-storey Hadgraft Wilson Place in May, would not comment other than to say that UBCO is being cooperative and taking responsibility for any damage.

Thompson did not have a date for when the Legion might reopen.

“We won’t know until the engineers go back and have another look,” he said.

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