(Sports) Editor's Note

Memorial Stadium project

Posted by: Jim Rossow

Saturday, March 29, 2008 4:04 PM

Jeff Huth's latest installment of "Stadium Status" runs in Sunday's section. Here's a sample of what looks to be a down-to-the-wire project:

Kurt Stahl won't claim this is the harshest winter he's worked though in 17 years in the construction business.
But it's close.
"I'd say it's probably one of the top two or three," the Hunt Construction Group official said last week. "It's been difficult."
That's never good news in Stahl's line of work, particularly given the magnitude of his current task. The Indianapolis native is the project manager for the $120.9 million renovation of Memorial Stadium. And the winter of 2007-08 has done workers and contractors no favors as they look to complete the project in time for the Sept. 6 home opener against Eastern Illinois.
"Usually, you get breaks (in the weather)," Stahl said. "This winter, there was no (mild) period in between. Here we are into March and you're still getting high winds, and then you get the snow and ice, and then you get the heavy rains."
A sustained harsh winter has hampered the progress – at least in some areas – of the project. In response, the Hunt Group added Saturdays to the work schedule starting Jan. 1. On occasion, a second shift also was added to selected work days.
Then, starting March 1, the work pace accelerated again. Three shifts have been working Mondays through Fridays. On Saturdays and Sundays, two shifts are combined into one work window lasting anywhere from nine hours to – more recently – 11 hours. Except for Easter Sunday, when everyone connected with the project took a holiday break, the construction site has been busy seven days a week all month.
"Coming into March, as we analyzed our situation – what we had left (to do) and where we needed to be -- we said we had to ramp up," Stahl said.
Project staff was forced to play catchup because, in the face of bad weather, some tasks simply can't be tackled. For example, there have been days when exposed steel became coated with ice, creating safety issues that put those areas off limits to workers.
"You can't walk the steel," Stahl said. "If it freezes, you have to wait for that to pretty much thaw out."

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