Long-running efforts to install a new roof for Montreal’s Olympic Stadium have been knocked back for the third time.
The project was first approved at a budget of C$250m (£144.7m/€173.4m/$196.6m) by the Quebec Government back in 2017. Work was due to be completed this year, but in 2019 it was decided that 2024 would be a more realistic delivery date.
However, Canadian broadcaster CBC said the renovations have been delayed once more, with neither the Government or Olympic Park proposing a new date for completion. Olympic Park spokesman, Cédric Essiminy, said the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic is making it more difficult for infrastructure projects to advance. He added: “Olympic Park is working very hard to move the roof replacement forward.”
The current 23-year-old Kevlar roof is said to have accumulated more than 16,000 tears since installation meaning that, for safety reasons, events cannot be held in the stadium if the weather forecast calls for more than three centimetres of snow or three millimetres of sleet.
In May 2019, Coalition Avenir Québec, the ruling political party in the Canadian province, committed to the Olympic Stadium after tabling a bill to reform management of the facility and install a new roof at the venue.
Opened in July 1976 for Montreal’s staging of that year’s Summer Olympic Games, the 56,040-capacity stadium has long been promised a new roof. The CAQ government’s bill saw the Olympic Installations Board rebranded as the Societé de développement et de la mise en valeur du Parc Olympique, or Olympic Park.
The change was designed to give more power to the body to bid for major events, while also granting it the ability to sign its own contracts with other organisations and governments, in addition to long-term leases with suppliers and corporate entities.
The Government last year chose Groupe Pomerleau-Canam (GPC), a consortium that includes Quebec companies, to lead the roof project, but since then no proposal or business plan is said to have been filed.
“Our consortium is still in discussions with the Société de développement et de mise en valeur du Parc olympique following the call for proposals,” Fabienne Barbe, a Pomerleau official, told Radio-Canada.
“Several of our technical advisors and engineers are involved in finding the best solution, along with our stadium counterparts. We can’t say when it will be finalised.”
Essiminy stated that talks are currently taking place between the Olympic Park and Pomerleau. “When the GPC proposal is submitted, a formal evaluation of the file will be carried out to verify its compliance with the requirements,” he added.
Quebec’s Tourism Minister, Caroline Proulx, said the province is working to replace the roof “as soon as possible”. She added: “The revision of the schedule is currently on the drawing board.”
Image: jgreenberg/CC BY-SA 2.0/Edited for size
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