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Buildings
LSU Stadium Project Races to Completion Despite Katrina
(louisiana.construction.com, October 2005 issue)
By Martin
Schwartz
The $60 million replacement of LSU's
Tiger Stadium west upper deck in Baton Rouge escaped Hurricane
Katrina with only minimal damage and continued on course toward
substantial completion in September.
Justin Cain, project manager with Yates
Construction's Building Division, said, "We had some
temporary walls that had some sheet rock damage and we lost
several days because of manpower issues. A lot of our guys
were based in New Orleans and surrounding areas. That hindered
our production.
"But we got most of our guys back
within a few days and for the most part we're back up and
running," he added. "Every day got better."
Delivery delays also plagued the job
after the hurricane, forcing the contractor to "re-prioritize
certain things."
Despite delays, Cain expected to have
all the seats in place by the Tigers' first home football
game Sept. 24 and to meet the final completion deadline of
March 2006. This has been largely accomplished by working
its crew two 10- to 12-hours shifts, seven days a week.
"They moved the first home game
back a couple of weeks, so that gave us an opportunity to
get a lot more glass in that we originally though on the east
wall, as well as more walls, ceiling grids and lights,"
he added.
Yates' 400-man crew will now concentrated
on interior finishes, including glasswork, millwork and painting.
"Basically, we've just floated
the walls and put primer on them," Cain said.
LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation project
manager Ralph Stogner said the new west upper deck is a wider
and taller concrete structure with about 500 new seats, a
club level and state-of-the-art press box. About 20,000 cu.
yds. of high-strength, 6,000-psi concrete was placed for the
new deck.
"This is a very high profile project
with some very time-sensitive issues," said Jim McArthur,
a construction manager with general contractor Yates Construction
of Philadephia, Miss. "We ramped up to get construction
up to a certain level, then geared down during the football
season."
In 2004, any week preceding a home game
concluded with an intensive effort to fan-proof the site to
allow access to all major entrances to the stadium. The contractor
also fenced off the site perimeter.
None of the demolition began until November
2004, following the last home game. Two weeks prior to the
last game, Deep South Crane of Baton Rouge delivered a 1,500-ton
lattice boom crane to the site on 56 trucks in preparation
for the demolition of the mammoth upper deck.
Louisiana Chemical Dismantling of Kenner
removed large sections of the upper deck. The largest single
pieces to be removed - the concrete raker beams that support
the seating areas - will weigh from 250,000 to 400,000 lbs.
Once on the ground, the pieces were
reduced in sized and hauled for crushing and recycling.
Construction began in summer 2004 on
the four new west side elevator shafts, two at the north and
south corners and two in the middle of the west side. Each
shaft is more than 145 ft. tall and about 280 sq. ft. Anywhere
from 74 to 89 piles were driven for each shaft.
High-strength concrete supplied by Angelle
Concrete of Baton Rouge was placed for much of the job, with
some 5,000 psi mix placed for the foundations. About 90 percent
of the concrete will be pumped by Concrete Eaters of Sulphur
and about 1,900 tons of reinforcing steel supplied by Southern
States Steel of Beaumont, Texas.
The largest foundation measures 105
ft. by 38.5 ft. by 8 ft. thick and supports the new south
pedestrian ramp.
Stogner said removal of the upper deck
took about 60 days. Existing columns beneath the deck were
removed and new rectangular columns were built atop new transfer
girders that measure 6 ft. wide and 13 ft. deep.
"From the ground up, there will
be 20 new columns," Stogner added. The columns that support
the new upper deck measure 5 ft. by 7 ft., while columns supporting
new north and south stairwells will measure 3 ft. by 13 ft.
After the new poured-in-place raker
beams were built, Boykin Bros. Of Baton Rouge supplied precast
seat sections on a "just in time" basis.
Upon completion, the new deck, designed
by Trahan Architects of Baton Rouge, will extend further southward
by about 100 ft. and will reach about 20 ft. higher.
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