An agency that oversees Montreal’s Olympic Stadium says parts of the new roof planned for the cavernous facility could be removable. The Parc Olympique said in a statement today it favours the option of a fixed roof made out of some form of textile.
But it says the Olympic Installations Board will also look at the possibility of making various sections removable for different events.
Montreal Olympic Stadium. Photo by grueco8288 via Wikimedia Commons
The comments come a day after the Quebec government said the stadium will have a new, $250-million roof by 2023.
Quebec will begin asking for proposals in 2018.
Montrealers have been dealing with the stadium’s problematic roof for years. with Radio-Canada reporting in May it had torn 677 times over the last year and 7,453 times over the past 10 years. The stadium was designed by architect Roger Taillibert and built for the 1976 Summer Games.
A closer look at the roof. Photo by WikiPedant via Wikimedia Commons
It currently doesn’t get much use. The Montreal Impact play there early in the Major League Soccer season, while the Impact and the Montreal Alouettes also use it for playoff games.
The 2015 annual report by the agency that runs the stadium reported the roof cost $454,000 to maintain that year _ down from $1.4 million in 2014.
It cannot be used if there is more than three centimetres of snow on the roof, making the venue effectively unusable in winter.
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The stadium and its roof have had a checkered hi...