MAJOR MILESTONE REACHED: The concrete floor of Agganis Arena was poured on Thursday, July 22. The state-of-the-art multi-purpose arena is on schedule to officially open January 3, 2005 with a Terrier hockey game against Minnesota.

Agganis Arena at Boston University's John Hancock Student Village reached a major construction milestone today, July 22, when concrete was poured to cover the event floor of the building.

More than 30 construction workers were involved in the event that lasted the entire day. The workers were stationed around the rink to assure the concrete was poured properly.

More than 425 yards of concrete covered the ice plant, which contained over a mile of 1 ¼ inch steel piping.

With the pouring of the concrete, it was estimated that over 70 percent of the Arena is now completed, and that the construction is right on schedule. The Terriers will play their first game at Agganis Arena on Monday, January 3, when they host the University of Minnesota at 7:00 p.m. The night before, the Terriers and Gophers will play the final men's hockey game at Walter Brown Arena. Faceoff for that game is also scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

Other items of interest include

• There were 425 yards of concrete poured. Each cubic yard weighs approximately 4,000 pounds for a total net ice slab weight of 1,700,000 pounds or 850 tons.
• The ice plant that is located under the concrete floor will hold 4,000 gallons of glycol and water mixture
• The plant will circulate over 950 gallons of the glycol and water mixture every minute.
• There will be four temperature sensors below the ice to monitor the lowest floor point temperature.
• There will be 80 event inserts/points to accommodate large family shows such as the circus.