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Olympic Center overhaul begins

State starts work on ‘80 and ‘32 rinks, refigeration; oval and tunnel will be later

Work vehicles and equipment moved onto the Olympic Speed Skating Oval in Lake Placid on Sunday, Feb. 28, after the venue hosted its final day of skating for the season. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

LAKE PLACID — This week major construction projects began on several of the Lake Placid Olympic Center’s historic ice rinks, refrigeration system and amenities. It is all expected to be finished by 2022, before the Winter World University Games come to town in January 2023.

This is the latest in a string of updates to state Olympic Regional Development Authority winter sports venues in recent years. The Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg has added a new lodge, biathlon shooting range, Nordic ski race stadium, snowmaking, ski trails, bobsled practice house and a mountain coaster ride for tourists. The ski jumps have gotten on-slope refrigeration, a gondola and a zipline ride, and their landing hills are being regraded. Whiteface Mountain Ski Center overhauled its Base Lodge, replaced its Midstation lodge and is replacing its gondola. New York’s governor and Legislature have so far invested hundreds of millions of dollars in these upgrades in advance of the World University Games.

The latest annual round of funding was proposed in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2021-22 Executive Budget in January, which included $92.5 million for ORDA winter sports facility upgrades, including the Olympic Center. The Legislature has not signed off on that yet but in past years has approved Cuomo’s ORDA funding proposals.

ORDA spokesperson Elise Ruocco said many of these venues, including the Olympic Center, have become outdated since they hosted the 1980 Winter Olympics.

“The Olympic Center and its refrigeration system are 1930s and 1970s vintage,” she wrote in an email. “This construction offers the opportunity to bring our facilities into compliance with updated competition, code and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards.”

The crux of the current renovation is a “major revitalization” to the 1980 and 1932 Olympic rinks, as well as the refrigeration plant that keeps them and the Olympic Speedskating Oval frozen. Ruocco estimated this construction will take around nine months.

These two rink renovations will cost around $22.8 million, she said. The refrigeration system replacement is expected to cost another $11.7 million, for a total of $34.5 million. After that, ORDA’s plans call for an overhaul of the outdoor oval and the part of the Olympic Center linking the 1980 and 1932 arenas.

Initially ORDA had planned to build a parking garage as well, but Ruocco there are no plans for that currently.

The USA Rink will be open throughout the construction project, so ice time will still be available.

Ruocco said the hockey locker rooms, concession stands and general concourse area of 1980 arena will be renovated. All public restrooms will be replaced, arena seats that haven’t been replaced already will be replaced, and ADA-compliant seating will be added. All heating, ventilation and air conditioning in the 1980 rink will be replaced.

Both rinks were recently retrofitted with new boards that can be adjusted to either international or National Hockey League regulation width. Also, the 1980 rink’s lighting system was recently upgraded to the level now expected for television broadcasts.

The 1932 rink will be finished by Nov. 1, the 1980 rink near Christmas, and the new refrigeration before the new year, according to ORDA.

“The refrigeration plant replacement will be the first major renovation to the refrigeration system since it was originally built for the 1980 Olympics,” Ruocco wrote in an email. “The new system will have approximately 25% more cooling capacity while being more energy efficient overall.”

She said ORDA hopes this replacement will allow it to stretch the outdoor oval’s season a bit longer and make maintaining the indoor rinks in the summer easier.

“The new system will also be using a more environmentally friendly refrigerant,” she said.

Ruocco said the oval’s replacement is in the conceptual development phase and not under construction yet. Ruocco said these designs still need to go finish the approval process before they can be implemented. Some North Country construction firms have spoken out against ORDA’s plans to require union labor for this project.

Also not ready for constuction is the “link building,” which connects the 1980 and 1932 rinks and includes the box office, Lake Placid Olympic Museum, ORDA Store and ORDA offices, as well as the tunnel the tunnel between the main building and the oval. ORDA initially proposed for the tunnel to become a “spectator tunnel” between the ice rink complex and the oval, but like the parking garage, that plan was set aside.

ORDA’s offices will be temporarily relocated into the Conference Center wing of the Olympic Center, where the former Lussi Rink was.

Ruocco said the museum and ORDA Store will remain open in a temporary space on the second level of the Conference Center during construction.

“This move is a proactive one on ORDA’s part, to protect the museum’s artifacts that are in storage from any potential mishaps in neighboring active construction areas,” Ruocco wrote. “Our museum is the second largest collection of winter Olympic artifacts in the world. However, the museum displays won’t be as extensive as they will be in the new museum, but there is still ample opportunity for guests to add to their Lake Placid experience and discover stories about the heritage of the Olympic Games.”

(Corrections: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that a tunnel leading from the Olympic Center’s main building to the speedskating oval is used by Zambonis, but Zambonis do not drive through that tunnel. The earlier version also incorrectly said the “link building” is the tunnel; it is the part of the Olympic Center that connects the 1980 and 1932 rinks and includes the box office, museum, ORDA Store and ORDA offices, as well as the tunnel. The Enterprise has also since learned that plans to expand the tunnel to accommodate spectators have been set aside. The Enterprise regrets the errors.)

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