Some major capital improvements may be on the horizon for the Western Springs Recreation Center.
Replacing the overhead fire sprinkler heads and finding a remedy for bowing walls in classrooms could be costly, but necessary, projects in the short term for the village facility.
Three walls separating Kensington School of Western Springs classrooms on the first floor of the building at 1500 Walker Street have bowed and the floor has developed a noticeable rise, said Tracy Alden, director of the Western Springs Recreation Department.
“The walls are bowing … and the floor is heaving,” Alden said.
There are no safety issues with the classrooms, Alden noted, but a structural engineer has suggested monthly elevation readings along the walls be done for a year to determine if movement continues.
“If there is continuing movement, and the problem source found, the slab may have to be removed and replaced or the exterior wall footings underpinned,” Walter Allen Jr. of Allen Engineering Co. of Villa Park wrote in a report to Alden. “If the rise remains as is, the steel stud/drywall separation may have to be repaired or replaced.”
Allen said that with the help of village staff, a 1994 memo on the building’s original soil borings was found. The memo suggested several remedial measures that needed to be taken to reasonably assure a firm foundation.
“We could not determine if any of these remedial measures were taken since we could not locate the as-built plans or construction field notes,” Allen said.
Allen believes the cause of the problem is either that the floor is rising due to expansive soil under the slab or the exterior wall is settling, pulling the floor down and creating an apparent rise in the slab.
“We will monitor things and then reconstruct or remedy the structure,” Alden said.
The recreation center opened in 1997.
Redoing the preschool’s dividing walls would be the plan if no additional movement occurs over the next year, Alden said.
He said the village may also need to spend $20,000 to $50,000 to replace the sprinkler heads for the building’s fire-prevention system.
Alden said the center’s fire sprinkler heads were recalled, but the company that created them is no longer in business, which would leave the village having to pick up the tab for replacement heads.
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The concern is that corrosion can occur with the heads, wearing down connections to the system and springing a leak.