BRUSSELS (Brussels Morning) – The final repair of the damaged roofs of the Bozar arts centre can start in the coming days. The Buildings Agency reports that the construction site crane required for this is currently being installed. The works will last more than a year, until June 2023.
The roof fire in the Bozar broke out on January 18, 2021. The southern circuit of the culture house, including several exhibition spaces and the Henry Le Bœuf concert hall, was affected. A lot of fire water seeped into the building and caused additional damage.
Immediately after the fire, a temporary cover and roofing was placed on the damaged parts of the roof to prevent further water seepage. Now comes the final repair. To ensure that this runs smoothly, a construction site crane is placed on the roof. In this way, site material can be lifted in and out of the site zone.
Works run until June 2023
According to the Building Agency, the repair work will run until June 2023. In concrete terms, this concerns the reconstruction of the zinc roofing and gutters, the repair of the glass roofs and skylights, the renewal of the special techniques and the suspension rails containing the air conditioning pipes and the restoration of the parquet floors.
The roofs and exhibition halls will be restored to their original state. The works have a price tag of around 9.3 million euros, which is borne by Bozar’s insurance. Any minor adjustments or improvements to the pre-fire situation are financed by the Buildings Agency.
The incident happened over a year ago when the fire had started on an evening of January at around 4.10 pm on the roof and also caused a lot of water damage internally. The fire service had successfully prevented the fire from spreading to the rest of the building. A total of 99 firemen/women (including relief) were deployed to fight the fire. “Thanks to their efforts, the damage is not too bad,” Johan Vanderborght of the Buildings Agency had told BRUZZ. The fire started in a technical room, probably due to a technical defect, malicious intent seems almost completely excluded.
