By early summer, people will see site work underway on the Big Nansen Ski Jump as the Nansen Ski Club and the Friends of the Big Nansen move ahead with Phase I renovations to the historic jump.
The Nansen Ski Club and Friends are also planning a capital campaign to help raise the money needed to complete the entire renovation.
About a year ago, the Friends entered into a contract with the preeminent ski-jump design group in the country, CBS Squared, Inc., to help plan and design improvements to the facility to allow sanctioned jumping events to be held at the site in the future.
The design work was funded by the group’s recent Northern Border Regional Commission Grant award and the result was a complete design of the facility to provide a safe event in accordance with modern ski jumping guidelines.
The design effort included evaluation of eight different combinations of jump and landing hill alternatives which were reviewed by a selection of ski jumping coaches, officials and other knowledgeable people in the ski jumping community.
The selected proposal provides the smoothest flight and softest landing but requires modifications to both the jump and landing hill.
Once the design work was complete in the summer of 2020, the Friends began the process of soliciting construction services to complete the improvements.
Unfortunately, the combination of the modernized design and a spike in material prices due to COVID-19 has required the Friends to re-evaluate its intended approach. Instead of completing all the work in one construction season, the group will need to take a phased approach due to the updated costs exceeding the group’s available funding.
Phase I will include the improvements to the landing hill and Phase II will include the jump structure. Additional improvements such as a new judges’ stand and other amenities will be completed in subsequent phases.
At the group’s latest meeting, Friends member Jay Poulin reported a $315,000 contract has been signed with contractor Lee T. Corrigan, LLC to complete Phase I improvements.
These improvements will include reprofiling of the landing hill, building a concrete retaining wall at the jump take-off, and installation of a required landing hill deflection system.
In order to keep costs within the group’s funding, the landing hill deflection system will only include the installation of the posts and top rail and deferring the installation of the horizontal boards.
The group had hoped to also have the boards themselves included, along with their installation, in the contract, but it was beyond the funds available. Instead, it is the plan to purchase the boards separately and organize a “work” party of volunteers to install them.
Poulin said that the engineer’s drawings call for composite boards, which are pricey but durable, but other lower-cost options will also be considered, such as plywood or hemlock. The discussion also mentioned seeking discounts or in-kind donations from local wood and building suppliers.
The board installation would be done after the other site work is completed, probably mid to late summer. He stressed that it was important to have this part completed so the work doesn’t look “half done” and also for safety reasons.
He noted that the work will be paid for by the $250,000 Northern Border Regional Commission grant plus the required match and some additional donated funds, to reach the $315,000 needed. The state, which owns the jump, is providing $35,000 towards the match.
The site work is scheduled to get underway in mid-June and will take eight to 12 weeks.
Poulin then moved on to discuss the results of work local engineering firm HEB Engineers, Inc. has completed through a contract with the N.H. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
HEB was contracted by the state agency to complete the design of new code-compliant stairs to the jump structure as well as perform a structural evaluation of the structure now that regular, permanent use was being considered.
Discussion centered on the structural evaluation as the results indicated structural reinforcing was required to several members of the jump in order to meet current building codes.
The jump renovation plans, to receive sanctioned status, call for building a new wider deck, on raised nailers, with varying heights above the new deck. Poulin noted “the standards have changed quite a bit since the jump was built in 1937.”
Some of the steel members were found to be overstressed and will have to be replaced or reinforced.
Poulin said the group is coordinating with Berlin steel fabricator, Capone Iron Corp., to get an estimate of the steel reinforcing work. A new steel staircase to the jump takeoff will also be constructed, the cost of which the state will cover.
“The scope of this project has grown since our initial plan,” Poulin noted, estimating that the steel reinforcing and the new jump deck profile improvements will likely cost north of $500,000.
That lead to a discussion on raising the additional money for the project.
Friends of the Big Nansen President Shawn Costello said the group needs to get the word out to the public on the need for additional donations and to recruit more volunteers.
Before the meeting, Scott Halvorson sent out a list of available grants and asked for help with the applications. Halvorson said the Nansen Ski Club plans to apply for the next round of NBRC grants, for the jump work. A “letter of interest” is due this month.
He said he will also have to file for a waiver for the “project completion” requirement that the prior grant is spent before a recipient can file for another grant.
Halvorson said because the pandemic has made such projects difficult, his discussions with NBRC have indicated that such a waiver could be granted. He also noted that this will be a very competitive round, and an aggressive campaign is now underway to raise the required matching funds.
There was agreement that the Friends will have to undertake a big capital campaign to raise the additional money, for project completion, “with all hands on deck.”
Finding a professional fundraiser to aid in directing the fundraising efforts was discussed briefly.
Halvorson said as the escalating costs of COVID have rendered the previous budgets obsolete, fundraising needs to take center stage.
“We need to move this forward,” Poulin agreed.
Halvorson also talked about the possibility of having work done to create smaller 10-meter and 20-meter beginner hills at the same time the already existing 40-meter hill is re-graded.
This would attract the young jumpers and reestablish the sport in the area, which is a primary goal of the Nansen Ski Club and the Friends.
The ski jumping community has offered strong support to reestablish a program, including Kennett High Ski Jumping Coach Chip Henry, who suggested the possibility of holding a high school-age jumping event there.
Halvorson said that doing this additional site work would be relatively inexpensive as the contractor would already be on-site as part of the Phase I improvement to the big landing hill.
Even with the added costs, there was genuine optimism about the members that the additional funding would be found based on commitments already expressed and the eager anticipation of the groundbreaking in the spring.
Donations may be made to Big Nansen Restoration, Nansen Ski Club, P.O. Box 222, Berlin, 03570 or online at skinansen.com.