Demolition of Montreal's Olympic Stadium will be expensive, but experts are skeptical of the $2 billion price tag PiPa News

The cost of reducing the playing area can vary. In 2017, an Ontario company received $2.1 million to demolish Regina's 33,350-seat soccer stadium; some hacks are more expensive. In Washington, the Robert Kennedy Memorial Stadium will be demolished in 2023 at a cost of 20 million US dollars, according to local media.

In New York City, the cost of demolishing the original Yankee Stadium is estimated at about $25 million, according to The New York Times, although the city will spend another $25 million to turn the site into a park.

A 2009 report commissioned by the provincial agency that oversees Montreal's Olympic Stadium put the cost of the demolition at up to $700 million, or about $965 million adjusted for inflation.

According to the report, one of the factors driving up the cost of demolition is that the Olympic stadium cannot be demolished with explosives. Because the stadium is made of prestressed concrete, controlled explosions can send concrete blocks flying hundreds of meters, raise a cloud of dust, and cause a shock wave that damages the adjacent indoor zoo and the subway tunnel below. . .

The report, prepared by engineering consulting firm Seguin Ingénierie, also ordered demolition with a wrecking ball. The company behind the report, which later changed its name to Génius Conseil, ceased commercial operations in 2014, a year after public inquiries into the president's conspiracy system and backfiring in provincial government contracting. In 2020, he agreed to pay $300,000 to settle bid-rigging charges brought by the federal government.

Daniele Malomo, a professor of civil engineering at McGill University, said the cost of demolition could not be estimated without a comprehensive analysis, but he said the use of prestressed concrete made the job more difficult.

“The problem with demolishing something like this is you can't cut concrete,” Malomo said in an interview.

Prestressed concrete is less brittle and more resistant to bending, but energy is released when the reinforcing wire inside is pulled and the concrete breaks, he said. “It really works like a bomb.”

De-stressing and removing rebar wires is a long process, he said.

Bruno Massicotte, professor of civil engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, said the infrastructure under the stadium, such as the subway, would prohibit the use of explosives. “The uniqueness of this structure should keep costs down compared to other types of stadiums,” he wrote in an email. “But no justification was provided for the $2 billion.”

Above the cost of dismantling the stadium's 12,000 concrete components, the $2 billion estimate includes $158 million for inflation, $168 million for “minimum site rehabilitation” and $80 million to rehabilitate nearby roads after trucks pass through, Parc Olympique said in an email. said. 20,000 to 30,000 times during hacking.

The most expensive stadium demolition in North America after Montreal will take place in Houston, Texas, where the planned cost of demolishing the Astrodome is approximately $80 million. There, community members received state heritage status for the venue, which was the world's first domed stadium when it was built in 1965.

James Glassman, founder of the Houstonian preservation group, said many Houstonians have fond memories of sporting events or concerts at the stadium, which has become one of the city's few historic landmarks.

But because teams from the National Football League and Major League Baseball have long called the stadium home — the NFL team left the city in 1996 and the MLB team has played in a new stadium since 1999 — a community of organizations is scrambling to find a new stadium. used for structure, he said.

“Once it's gone, it's gone for good, so be careful, it's easy to get into hacking fever, but who's going to pay to take it down? Who benefits? What happened to his place? If the land is needed for something else, there's a good reason for it, but if it's not, it's not a terrible decision to allow it on that basis,” Glassman said.

2:17 a.m
The renovation of the roof of the Big 'O' stadium in Montreal is estimated at 870 million dollars

This Canadian Press report was first published on February 10, 2024.