NUENEN – The Hongerman sports hall in Nuenen is immediately closed due to the danger of the roof collapsing. The hall will not be available to athletes and other users at least until January 2nd, because urgent repairs must be made.
The temporary closure is annoying news for many Nuenens College associations, primary schools and secondary schools. For almost two months they will not be able to use the sports areas of the Hungerman and the adjacent part of the Scarabee, where social organizations are housed. Sunday’s Sint’s Speelpaleis event will be moved to John Geven Studios aan de Spegelt.
Nuenen Municipality regrets the consequences for users. “However, we have put the safety of users and residents in the vicinity of the sports hall first and we have therefore taken this decision”, he reports in a statement released shortly after 7.30 on Tuesday evening.
There is a small chance that the roof will fail in extreme wind or snowfall
At that moment, dozens of athletes and CPR participants looked surprised: suddenly they all had to leave the building on the Hoge Brake in Nuenen-South. The reason: Hungerman’s roof is not strong enough. In concrete terms, it could collapse in the event of “extreme wind or snow”.
Research on solar panels
The defect emerged during an investigation of the roof construction. This was done to see if it is possible to install insulation and solar panels inside and on the roof of the sports hall in the future. The Hungerman will receive a complete renovation and sustainability is part of it.
The investigation showed that “the construction of the roof does not meet current safety requirements,” according to the municipality of Nuenen. The construction differs from the design used in 1975 for the construction of the sports hall. In addition, additional layers of roofing material have been added over the years, affecting the load-bearing capacity of the structure.
“Although this situation has not caused any accidents in the past 47 years, the current situation cannot continue,” the municipality of Nuenen ruled. Hungerman users didn’t take too great a risk, according to the municipality’s message. “There’s a small chance the roof will break.”
Supported and reinforced
The roof will be propped up in three places in the coming weeks. The roof structure will then be reinforced. The Hungerman is expected to reopen to users on Monday January 2nd. The Nuenen-Zuid Hungerman is expected to receive an award in two years restructuring for 10.3 million euros. The architects are working on the project, although it is feared that the budget is too tight due to rising costs for building materials and energy.
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