Built in 1915, the Percival Molson Stadium at McGill University has been used by the university’s various sports teams as well as by the Montreal Alouettes Canadian football team since 1998. For budget reasons, the Alouettes football club and McGill University decided to proceed with their stadium expansion project in two stages.
The first phase, carried out between February and July 2003, consisted of adding 150 additional seats. During construction, it soon became apparent that the entire northern section of the stands was so badly damaged that it had to be demolished and replaced. The second phase, between November 2008 and June 2010, involved adding 5,000 seats and 18 corporate boxes to reach a total capacity of 25,000 seats (+25%), as well as the construction of a new terrace and a giant screen. The project also included new walkways, a new ticket office concealed in the mountainside, new mechanical and sanitary rooms, and food service facilities.
One of this project’s major constraints was the close proximity of the neighbouring buildings belonging to the university, i.e. the Tomlinson Sports Centre and the Neurological Institute. This resulted in safety issues for their users during the construction phase, but also created the need to adapt certain aspects of the stadium, including a section of stand cantilevered over the existing buildings. Another major challenge was the very strict schedule to be respected, as the work had to be concentrated in the off-season of the Alouettes football club. Thus, the consolidation work on the existing structure and the construction of the foundations were carried out during the winter of 2009 and the remaining work during the winter of 2010.
For this project, NCK provided complete structural and civil engineering consulting services.
