Olympic Stadium gets $254,395 rush waterproofing job

The Olympic Park is carrying out urgent waterproofing work on a section of the Olympic Stadium’s concrete walls in Montreal, to protect it before winter, at a cost of $254,395.

The repairs are on one of the stadium’s 35 “veils,” the concrete sections between the cantilevers, each with slightly different dimensions, the park said in a statement reported by CTV News on Tuesday.

The park said it periodically applies a Vulkem-type waterproofing membrane to protect the structures from water infiltration. Looking for “a more sustainable solution” that would reduce the need for those recurring interventions, it decided to test a different approach on one veil, covering about 372 square metres between cantilevers four and five.

The trial was meant to “validate the installation method, evaluate the performance of the materials and better determine the labour requirements and costs of a potential larger-scale project,” the park said.

Removing the old membrane left the concrete exposed and unprotected. With winter approaching, officials said they had to move quickly to finish the test and protect the area before freeze-thaw cycles could damage the structure.

The park said the work is separate from the large-scale project to build a new roof over the stadium and has no effect on the roof replacement timeline, which remains unchanged.

The stadium’s long-running roof problems have been a recurring cost for Quebec taxpayers. Our earlier coverage looked at reports that Quebec will complete the Olympic Stadium renovations.

For more Montreal news, see our report on weekend closures on the La Fontaine tunnel and Highway 40.

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Source: Olympic Park statement, via CTV News Montreal.