A day in the life of a Facilities Management team member…

The rain was coming down hard and lighting had struck – it was a perfect storm that passed through Calgary on Tuesday June 28, 2016 at approximately 4:00pm. Severe weather is one of the many considerations that the Facilities Management team manages.

Lightning hit two 15 year old poplar trees on the Mount Royal Campus. The bark was stripped from the trees and as a result, the Grounds crew had them removed and are now working towards getting them replaced.  The torrential rain pour caused 2 leaks in B-Wing where a current roofing project is taking place and a third leak above The Hub in Wykham House.

Did you know: The Mount Royal campus has 900,000 square feet of roofing!

Quick thinking and years of experience led Director of Engineering Services (Facilities Management), Kim McKellar, to work with the roofing contractor to rapidly pump the water from the B-Wing and use a piece of wood cleverly to stop the leak above The Hub.

What’s Next?

A ‘severe weather’ procedure has since been put in place for Security to have contractor information on hand should a similar situation happen during off hours. The Building Operations (Facilities Management) team is currently working on permanent fixes to effected areas off the roof.

When severe weather hits Calgary, the Facilities Management team has all hands on deck to minimize any disruption to the campus.