Bicentennial Park Cafe's roof is sturdy and stylish.

What weighs 250 tons and sits right overhead?

Given gravitational pull and the atomic weight of oxygen, there’s probably a brainy conceptual answer to that question. But, in a very literal sense, there is an actual answer: 250 tons is the estimated weight of the roofs on the Scioto Mile’s cafe and the band shell. To put it in perspective, the weight of the two roofs is comparable to 62 elephants, or a whopping 125 cars – now that’s a heavyweight roof.

Why on earth are the rooftops so heavy? It’s poured concrete. Big pumps funnel the wet cement from the trucks up to the top of the structures where the construction team stands at the ready to smooth it out.

That leads to the next obvious question: So, why use concrete? What’s wrong with normal roofing material? There’s nothing wrong with “normal” roofing material. In fact, in some regions, concrete roofs are the norm. 

Although heavy, the roofs on the Scioto Mile’s structures aren’t solid concrete.

Heavyweight roofs require lots of support!

The medium is fortified with a dense maze of supports –so dense you could almost walk across the bare framework itself.

And the use of concrete gives designers the freedom to create pretty curves and shapes that just aren’t possible with big bulky shingles. That’s been a theme here at the Scioto Mile: pretty IS and pretty DOES.

Just wait ‘til you see what the Scioto Mile DOES next!

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