Summerside closes its sports dome after damage from generator use

Summerside's sports dome is going to be closed for the foreseeable future to let technicians assess its safety, city deputy CAO J.P. Desrosiers said Wednesday. 

The $5 million dome over a huge indoor turf field opened three years ago for the Canada Winter Games. Warm air is pumped continuously inside the dome to keep it inflated. 

But the dome, along with other large users in the P.E.I. municipality, has been using backup power from generators for over a week.

That's because Maritime Electric is asking users to curtail power use during peak times — in the mornings and evenings — as it works to repair a transformer at the Sherbrooke substation that is a conduit for half of Summerside's power.

"There were some concerning moments this morning," Desrosiers told CBC News, explaining that the dome was damaged after its inflation system experienced a connection disruption. 

The dome was "not designed to be run on generators, and the last eight days we have been doing that during peak times, to bring down the load requirements," he said. 

To be on the safe side, Desrosiers said, the dome now needs an assessment by specialized technicians, who must travel from out of province. Once that's done, the city will know whether repairs are needed and how soon the dome could reopen.