New arena floor installed at the Berglund Center

ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - A multi-million dollar renovation is underway at the  Berglund Center ahead of one of its busiest performance seasons, which also includes the arrival of the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs ice hockey team.

This week, enough concrete to fill 35 dump trucks was laid on the arena floor.

To put that into perspective, that's 1.2 million pounds of concrete which now covers 11 miles of piping installed in the floor.

Now that the concrete is laid, the job is still far from over. Six times a day, construction workers from Lionberger Construction will have to hose down the floor to help cure the concrete, making sure it dries perfectly without cracking.

General Manager Robyn Schon says the $1.2 million piece of this renovation project is one of the most important parts.

"It's going to look like a brand new arena," Schon said

Schon says the old ice hockey rink has leaked over the past several seasons so they've laid literally miles of new piping to fix the problem.

It's what she calls a more than worthwhile investment for the opening season of Roanoke's Rail Yard Dawgs.

"We realized the value of having a team like them. We waited a long time for hockey. We could not take a chance that we finally get a quality team, a good league, great owners, that stars aligned on that level, and then roll the dice with the floor," Schon said.

New seating, railings and even a fresh coat of paint has been added. For now, it's all covered with plastic to protect it while the floor is installed and cured with water.

Once renovations are complete they will install a state of the art score board with thousands and thousands of LED chips that Schon says is sure to impress fans, as well as add more capabilities to future expo's and conferences.

"There are so many positive things to having this arena here. For a building that is 46 years old, to have the city reinvest in it is pretty amazing," Schon said.


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