The Cintec Reinforcement System Used To Repair John Sopinka Courthouse Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Located at 45 Main St E, Hamilton, Ontario, it was built in 1935 – but half-a-century before that, a spectacular post office had been built on the same spot. It was an impressive red stone building featuring a clock tower and cornices. The Depression was on and the Canadian government came up with the “Dominion Government Construction Programme of Recovery”.

They decided Hamilton would get a new post office, with space also for customs, marine, agriculture, immigration and tax offices. The original building was mostly demolished and in September 1936, the new $1.6 million Dominion Public Building opened to the public.

This post office is now part of the re-named John Sopinka Courthouse. The old marble hall with the postal wickets and large tables still exists on the ground floor of the John Sopinka building. a+LiNK Architecture was retained and provided specialized knowledge to preserve the cultural heritage of the John Sopinka Courthouse by Infrastructure Ontario. They provided an investigation, analysis and a proposed solution for the stone façade restoration of this historic courthouse. The restoration included repairs and re-attachment to five storeys of stone on the building envelope, original masonry components and the metal canopy. With this analysis it was determined that the original ties were loose, deteriorated and failing.

The Cintec Reinforcement System was used to re-attach the stone to the diverse brick and/or speed tile (structural terra cotta) back-up wall. The fact that the Cintec anchors attached both adhesively and mechanically, which provided progressive failure as opposed to brittle fracture, as well as the inherent fireproof capability were a strong consideration.

However the backup wall capacity was still of concern. To this end, extensive and successful, testing was conducted. Because the bulbing action (mechanical attachment) of the Cintec system distributed required loads over much larger areas, than other systems, the fragile back up walls were able to withstand required loads – including wind load. A3/8”(10mm) threaded rod with 1 1/4”!(32mm) sock, 71/2”!(190mm) long, socked 6”!(150mm) in a 1 1/4”!(32mm) hole was used. .Over 700 anchors were used to re-attach the stone and were installed by Phoenix Restoration, Whitby Ontario

About CINTEC

CINTEC North America is a world leader in the field of structural masonry retrofit strengthening, repair, and preservation. The principal activity of the company is the design and manufacture of the CINTEC Reinforcing and Anchoring Systems, a micro cement anchoring and reinforcing technique. CINTEC offers complete structural analysis and design services, turnkey solutions, as well as masonry repair and reinforcement anchors used for blast protection, seismic reinforcement, historic preservation and overall building strengthening. CINTEC has worked on projects around the world including the Egyptian Pyramids, Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, Statue of Liberty, the Library of Parliament in Canada and the White House complex.

CINTEC of Hunt Valley, MD and Ottawa Canada, have associated offices in Newport, Wales, UK ; Newcastle, Australia; and India.