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Construction begins on new roof

June 30, 2010

The dome is long gone and BC Place is now ready for its 'makeover'. After the old air-supported roof was deflated on May 4, 2010, it took about a month for crews to cut away the fabric roof and remove the steel cable network that held the pressurized roof for over a quarter-of-a-century.

Check out our construction webcams at bcplace.com and see how the building is now wide open to the elements, but it will not stay that way for long. Keep an eye on BC Place over the next few weeks, as there will be major transformations on the worksite.

A True "Heavyweight"
The retractable roof will be the largest of its kind ever built, covering 76,000 square metres. Consequently, it is made of some pretty large components. For example, there will be 36 masts around the outer rim to hold up the cable-suspended roof. Each mast is 14 stories in height and weighs 120 tons. Together, they will hold up a cable network resembling 18 suspension bridges and made up of 35 kilometers of cable. The cable used is 90mm (3.5 inches) in diameter – double that used in gondola lifts. You can imagine the machinery it will take to put it all together.

Calling this Crane 'Big' is an understatement. There are many things unique to this project, there is one thing that is particularly unusual: almost all of the work on the roof will be done "from the inside" of the building, which means none of the heavy components for the roof can be lifted from the outside.

That is why we are bringing in the largest mobile crane you are ever likely to see. It is so long - and so heavy - it will take 85 semi-trailer trucks to bring all the pieces together for assembly inside BC Place.

Once it is put together (and assembling the crane is a big job in itself, even before any of the roof is built) in the exact configuration required for the BC Place project, its lifting capacity will be a massive 600 tons at a time. It will be used to hoist large sections of the roof from what used to be the BC Lions' playing field, up to the highest points of the building.

Roof Recycling 101
While the new roof gets underway, the old roof is getting a new life elsewhere – perhaps as tarps, farm, and industrial coverings, and even an ice rink liner.

Almost 100 per cent of its 720,000 square feet of Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric and inner liner will be recycled, rather than going to a landfill. A Minneapolis firm that specializes in recycling industrial fabric materials for use in other products will ensure it is cut, patched, cleaned, and repackaged for re-purposing.

A small part was collected by the community of Celista, BC, near Kamloops, and they will use it to line their community ice rink this coming winter. Another small part of the fabric has been saved for use by the BC Sports Hall of Fame & Museum in an upcoming fundraising program.