Dear Wise One, what will happen to the old Metrodome roof after it's removed? Will it be recycled into other products, buried in a landfill or burned up in an incinerator? It surely will be a lot of material to dispose of, somehow. -- Richard
Ten acres of material, to be exact. Yes, that's a lot of Teflon-coated fiberglass, and according to Steve Maki of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, no decision has been made quite. It likely will be left to the contractor to figure out; Maki said some arrangement likely will be noted in the final contract for the new roof that calls for the "safe and proper" disposal of the old one.
The commission voted Thursday to replace the roof, at a cost of about $19 million, almost all of which will be paid by insurance claims, they say. The goal is to have it up and puffy by Aug. 1, two weeks before the NFL pre-season begins, assuming the NFL season proceeds on schedule despite labor trouble.
There's a firm in Minneapolis called Recycling Teflon Fabric that might have an interest in this job. It's a division of Sky Group Inc., a privately held Minneapolis company that specializes buying and selling liquidation products. Doing business as the Billboard Tarp Warehouse, in 2009 it was chosen "to find eco-friendly ways to re-use" the Teflon roof removed from the BC Stadium in Vancouver, Canada. They're selling it by the piece or by the acre, for use in tarps, bags, canopies or whatever you want, so there's apparently a market.
Maybe the clinic would be interested in doming downtown Rochester to make it more pleasant in February? Though on days like today, we'd want it to be retractable.
