XL Center gets NHL ready ice sheet
The XL Center is not "NHL Ready" except for the floor. Today 30 concrete trucks, two hoppers, several pumping and laser leveling machines worked for six hours straight on a continuous pour to give the building one of its most needed upgrades.
The XL Center floor was in poor shape before the work now it should be able to handle the half a million people it serves every year.
Before the concrete was poured the construction crews, inspectors and engineers put together over 12 miles of piping to complete the ice sheet system. The new ice sheet will have a much more sophisticated temperature sensor, that and the filling in of the old cross ice tunnel will contribute greatly to creating consistent ice throughout the playing surface. After the piping was all connected insulation and steel reinforcements were applied to make the ice sheet more durable and efficient.
As of around 1pm today the XL Center floor had received 330 cubic yards of concrete and it will take a good five to six hours of laser guided screed work to finish the surface floor. The CRDA believes things will wrap up around midnight this evening.
The only thing left to do will be to anchor the goal posts, in just a few months they'll be used in play when this up coming season of Hartford Hockey gets underway. The CRDA has been behind the great strides to make the XL Center fit for a major league market and now there an ice sheet that's good enough for any hockey team.
