Construction work on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games has passed a major milestone with the completition of the first phase of the wooden roof at the Richmond Oval in Vancouver.
The venue, which will play host to the Games’s speed skating events, is to have a wooden roof totalling 6.5 acres in size, with the first glulam roof span, measuring 100m, put into place during July.
More than one million board feet of pine taken from forests in British Columbia (BC) is to be used in the construction and minister of natural resources Gary Lunn said that the structure would act as a showcase for the materials.
“[The] raising of the roof at the Richmond Oval marks a milestone in our preparation for the 2010 Winter Games,” said Mr Lunn. “It will also showcase the advantages of working with lumber from post-beetle timber from the forests of BC.”
Richmond mayor Malcolm Brodie added that the venue would be an “international showcase for sustainable building practices”.
