Montreal’s Olympic Stadium is getting a new roof

Montreal’s Olympic Stadium is getting a new roof.

The iconic structure, along with the technical ring, will be replaced at a cost of $870 million and is expected to be completed by 2027.

Ministers Caroline Proulx and Chantal Rouleau made the announcement at a news conference in Montreal Monday morning, accompanied by Parc Olympique president and CEO Michel Labrecque.

The new roof will be fixed and will have a translucent strip as well as a skylight.

The budget for the roof breaks down as follows:

• Dismantling old roof: 18 per cent
• Building technical ring: 12 per cent
• Assembly and installation of new roof: 69 per cent

The new roof is expected to last 50 years.

Work is slated to begin this summer.

Activities, including festivals on the Olympic Park esplanade, will not be affected by the work, which will take place mostly inside the stadium.

After it’s completed, the Big O will be able to host events 12 months a year, which was previously impossible.

“Replacing the roof and implementing the Olympic Park business plan will generate significant economic benefits of nearly $1.5 billion over ten years and, more precisely, on an annual basis,” said the Legault government.

The consortium formed by Groupe Construction Pomerleau-Canam will lead the project.  

Currently, events at the stadium, built for the 1976 Summer Olympics, are cancelled if more than three centimetres of snow are expected to fall.

Proulx said demolishing the stadium would cost $2 billion and would be complicated by the fact the Montreal metro runs under the structure and because several businesses lease office space in the stadium’s tower.

Officials have been looking to replace the roof for more than 20 years, and the stadium has been closed since mid-December for exploratory work related to the upcoming renovations. 

– With files from The Canadian Press