Upgrades planned for National War Memorial
The federal government plans to spend between $1 million and $5 million on upgrades to the iconic National War Memorial.
A Public Works tender posted online Friday seeks a contractor to fill in a crawl space under monument with unshrinkable concrete to reinforce the structure. The tender also calls for relocating some power lines and improving the drainage system.
The monument was built in the 1930s and formally dedicated as a memorial to the First World War in May 1939, just over three months before the outbreak of the Second World War.
The memorial includes a towering granite arch topped by a pair of bronze figures symbolizing peace and freedom, all within site of Parliament Hill.
The tops of those figures are more than 21 metres above the pavement.
In the arch itself, a group of 22 larger-than-life bronze figures, including infantrymen, an airman, a sail- ors, gunners, cavalrymen, a nursing sister and others march through with an artillery piece.
The sculpture, called The Response, is made from 32 tonnes of bronze. The whole memorial contains more than 500 tonnes of granite.
The last major change to the memorial was the addition of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in May 2000.