Bird Construction project manager Steve Leger took members of the media on a tour Tuesday morning to show the progress on Moncton’s new event centre.
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With the building at about 50 per cent completed, the interior is taking shape.
“On the press level and suite level, all the drywall is pretty well installed now so we’re going to be crack filling and painting up there,” Leger said.
The seating area has been modified from its original plans – few months ago city council voted on widening the seats by one inch.
“This is all about spectator experience, and in order to enhance that experience they felt that having the wider seats would be more comfortable, especially in the winter season where you have the big jackets,” saidIsabelle Leblanc, Moncton’s corporate communication director.
With that modification, the seating capacity will be at 8,500 seats, with the possibility of increasing that number to 10,000 with floor seating, for concerts and other events.
The next steps for the $104 million project is the installation of the electrical and mechanical components.
On an average day about 160 people work on the site and more than 185,000 working hours have been spent building the facility.
So far, the project is on budget and is scheduled to open in September 2018.