The roof on the new arena being constructed in Quesnel has been redesigned.
Jeff Norburn, the Director of Community Services, confirmed at last night’s North Cariboo Joint Planning Committee meeting that the new West Fraser Centre will be a steel and timber structure now as opposed to just wood.
The idea is that it will enhance acoustics and cut down on some costs because a wood roof would have to be re-engineered to be structurally sound to handle heavy snow.
Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson felt this new roof actually better on a few fronts and he even went as far as to call it “an elegant solution”.
He says “you hide the cross girders and get some space so that the sprinkler system piping is actually sitting behind the wood.”
Simpson says it appears that maintenance should be easier as well because there is easier access.
John Massier, the Cariboo Regional District Director for Area C, was concerned about having some kind of finishing on the wood.
He used the Richmond Oval as an example, who’s roof he was not a fan of.
Massier says he was surprised to walk into a beautiful multi-million dollar building and when you look up at the ceiling it looks like it was made with D grade 2 x 4’s with raw wood.
He says you could still visibly see all the grader’s stamps on there and it looked cheap.
Norburn assured Massier that staff would keep in mind that they want to keep it aesthetically pleasing, adding that a lot of details still have to be worked out.
The project remains on schedule with a completion date of September of 2017.