Relic No. 003Catalogued
The Big O
- Site
- Olympic Stadium, Montreal
- Era
- Begun 1973. Roof finished 1987.
- Material
- Prestressed concrete, Kevlar optimism
- Intended use
- A stadium with a retractable roof
- Actual use
- A roof that retracted 88 times in its life
- Status
- A new fixed roof under way, estimated at CA$870 million
MONTREAL. Begun 1973. Opened, unfinished, for the 1976 Olympics. The 1970 projection was CA$134 million. The bill at opening was CA$1.1 billion.
The retractable roof arrived in 1987, eleven years late. It could not be moved in winds above 40 km/h. In its whole life it was opened and closed 88 times. It came down in 1998.
The fixed roof that replaced it had 7,453 tears by 2017. The debt was paid off in 2006, largely by a special tax on tobacco.
For thirty years a province smoked to pay for a roof that would not open.
Noted.
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