Sixteen Mile Sports Complex

Location: Oakville, Ontario
Owner/Operator: The Town Of Oakville
Contractor: EllisDon

Sixteen Mile Sports Complex is the Town of Oakville’s new state-of-the-art, LEED Gold Certified, quad pad arena.

 Complex Facilities include:

• #1 Olympic-sized Ice Pad, seating for 1,500
• #2 NHL-sized Ice Pad, seating for 250 and specially designed team benches and boards for sledge hockey
• #3 NHL-sized Ice Pad, seating for 250
• #4 NHL-sized Ice Pad, seating for 250
• Shooter Pad #1, 20 by 40 feet, capacity 6 on ice
• Shooter Pad #2, 20 by 40 feet, capacity 6 on ice
• 3 Community rooms
• 22 change rooms
• Full-service restaurant and snack bars

The Town of Oakville requested that ice-pad #1 achieve specific acoustical criteria, namely a reverberation time of no more than 2 seconds, and a background sound from HVAC equipment of NC-25 to 30.  This was an onerous target for an arena, but justified to enable sports broadcasting capabilities,  as excessive reverberation makes speech, especially amplified on a PA system, difficult to understand.  In addition, it was requested that the potential for noise from the rooftop equipment be limited to reasonable levels in the upper concourse area (corridor along the north end of all rinks) and in the multi-purpose rooms on the second floor.

HGC Engineering selected target background sound levels based on industry guidelines (ASHRAE) which suggested a background sound level of NC-30 to 35 in the multipurpose rooms and about NC-45 in the corridors.  As well, effective vibration isolation of the rooftop equipment required that the roof structure be dynamically stiff enough to enable spring isolation systems to work properly  The airborne sound from the rooftop HVAC and mechanical equipment penetrating the roof constructions and entering the identified sensitive spaces was also assessed.

Furthermore, methodologies for the vibration isolation of the rooftop units were also offered based on vibration analysis of the installed systems.

Acoustical Consulting Services Included:

• Sound Transmission Class (STC) Analysis
• Building Services Noise and Vibration control (HVAC Systems, Pumps, Generators, etc)
• Structural Vibration Review
• Arena and Room Acoustics Analysis and Control
• Shop Drawing Review