News and media

BC Place revitalization construction update

March 22nd, 2011

VANCOUVER, BC: Warren Buckley, President and CEO of BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), provided CKNW listeners with a construction update Monday afternoon on the new retractable roof and stadium revitalization project at BC Place.

Click here to listen to the interview.

An animation video depicting the construction process can be found under the ‘Construction’ menu at www.bcplace.com

Retractable Roof Construction - By the Numbers

• 7,000 tons - weight of steel used in the construction of the retractable roof
• 76,000 square metres – area of fabric used to cover the roof
• 50 metres – approximate length of each mast
• 130 tons – average weight of each mast
• 90mm (3.5 inches) – diameter of individual cables used in the spans between masts (Whistler’s Peak to Peak gondola uses primary cables that are 56mm in diameter)
• 35 kilometres – total length of cable used
• 7,000,000 kilograms – weight of snow that can be supported by the roof structure
• 240 metres – length of the longest spans between masts
• 1,100 tons – maximum lifting capacity of the crane being used to hoist large sections of the roof (Capacity of 600 tons in the configuration being used at BC Place)
• 85 semi-trailers – number of units required to transport the crane to the stadium for assembly

Roof Construction Schedule

Winter 2010/11 & Spring 2011:
• Temporary centre field scaffolding is removed
• Roof support cables tensioned across stadium
• Installation of roof fabric begins

Fall 2011:
• BC Lions return to BC Place Sept 30th
• Vancouver Whitecaps FC play first home MLS game at BC Place Oct 2nd

November 2011
• Final completion of roof construction
• BC Place hosts Grey Cup 2011

Project information, construction webcam images and updates available at www.bcplace.com