Wall collapses at Bomber stadium construction site

Strong winds are being blamed for another wall collapse at the construction site for the Blue Bombers new stadium.

The project director with Stuart Olson Dominion, which is building Investors Group Field at the University of Manitoba, said high winds caused a bathroom wall to fall on Wednesday.

Mike Clynes said the three-metre tall wall is on the northwest side of the stadium. He said the company typically puts up a wall and then adds temporary bracing, which is eventually replaced by permanent bracing.

But in this case, the workers who put up the wall hadn't yet added the bracing.

Workplace Safety and Health immediately issued a stop-work order on the whole facility until all the walls were inspected.

The company is now waiting on one more inspection of the wall that fell and hopes to resume construction as soon as possible.

Wind problems in the past have caused several construction delays at the site, such as in May when a section of brick wall belonging to the administration building fell over.

The stadium was originally slated to be ready for the July 26 Blue Bombers home opener.

Team officials then said they hoped to host the Sept. 9 Banjo Bowl game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders — but if that wasn't possible, it would certainly be ready by Sept. 21.

That was in May.

A month later, the team announced that due to continued weather-related delays, the new stadium wouldn't open until the start of the 2013 season.

The latest wall collapse is relatively minor and not expected to slow things down further, according to Clynes.