Crews March Past Halfway Point on Chicago’s Soldier Field Project

After working for almost seven months and with approximately five months to go, crews have placed the majority of the structural steel, and fans are ready to cheer the early completion of Soldier Field. The general contractor, a joint venture between Turner Construction Management and Kenny Construction, both out of Chicago, and Barton-Marlow, of Detroit, have hired a trio of subcontractors to complete the structure of the stadium as well as an underground parking structure and the risers. All subs are utilizing Manitowoc 2250 300-ton (272 t) crawler cranes for the project, rented through Central Contractors Service Inc., which is on site 24 hours a day with a mechanic to help with any service issues, according to John Martello, of Central Contractors. So far, there hasn&#8217;t been much downtime for any of the subs. &#8220;The cranes have been running smoothly. The downtime has been very minimal for this job,&#8221; he said. Getting the Structure Underway Danny&#8217;s Construction Co. Inc., of Shakopee, MN, is heading up the steel erection on the $587-million Soldier Field project. According to Joe Lobianco, general foreman, crews started erecting steel in mid-April and hope to be finished in approximately three months. &#8220;Most of the main structure is erected already. We probably have another couple of months for some of the miscellaneous erection,&#8221; he said. The main structure, he added, is 95 percent complete. The company right now is dealing &#8220;with the fancy scoreboards, which are part of the main structure,&#8221; he noted. With 9,500 tons (8,618 t) of steel already up, the company anticipates only a couple hundred of tons left to complete. So far, the company has erected the structure itself, the skyboxes and all the steel for the bleachers, Lobianco explained. Along with the two Manitowoc 2250s, Danny&#8217;s crews also are using two Manlifts, and a 40-ton (36.5 t) cherry picker among other pieces for the steel erection. Service for the machines, provided by Central Contractors, he added, has been very good. At the peak of the project, the company had more than 60 ironworkers and operators on site, Lobianco said. &#8220;We had that amount up until a few weeks ago. Now we have much less than that.&#8221; So far, the biggest challenge on Danny&#8217;s portion of the job, Lobianco said, is dealing with the schedule. &#8220;That is always challenging. Just trying to complete the sequences according to the schedule dates is the biggest concern. Any errors in fabrication, design and detail can create somewhat of a problem for a while because they need to be addressed immediately,&#8221; he noted. However, he added, crews are on schedule, &#8220;if not ahead. &#8220;We&#8217;ve had a good crew here all along. The men are doing an outstanding job with the amount of hours and days we work, especially with the extreme temperatures we experienced this summer with the 90-plus degree days. Everyone has done quite well with all of this,&#8221; he said. Finding a Good Parking Space For many events, especially sporting events in a big city like Chicago, parking can be one of the biggest hurdles when trying to get to the game. That is one reason Soldier Field&#8217;s new stadium will come with a new 1 million-sq.-ft. (92,903 sq m) $75-million underground parking garage capable of housing 2,400 vehicles. Meroe Contracting & Supply Co. is in charge of erecting all the precast for the parking structure, according to Aaron Vnuk, project manager. The precast was shipped in on trucks when workers began this part of the project in mid-May. Crews used the Manitowoc 2250 crane with a luffing jib to put the pieces in place. Vnuk said their portion of the project should be completed in January. Meroe moved approximately 2,600 pieces of precast, some weighing as much as 135,000 lbs. (61,235 kg), Vnuk said. The company averaged about 15 to 20 pieces a day. As of mid-November, about 70 percent of the underground structure was complete, he said. &#8220;We have quite a bit more to go yet, but we should be able to get it done in time,&#8221; he noted. Approximately 12 to 24 employees have been on site recently. In July and August, during the peak, 25 employees were on the project working double shifts. The underground structure is an interesting one. On top of the garage, a park will be designed with a waterfall and grass and trees. &#8220;This is the toughest parking garage we&#8217;ve ever worked on,&#8221; Vnuk explained. &#8220;The complexities of the pieces and the size of them made it harder. Also, this is not your typical garage. There are different features with it, like the waterfall and there are miscellaneous ramps and things within the structure that make it harder than usual, as well as the fact that it is underground.&#8221; All that is left to do, he commented, &#8220;is a lot of caulking, sealing and grouting to finish up inside of the garage. They will do that after we are done detailing and finishing up the precast work.&#8221; He anticipates that the rest of the total garage project will take another four or five months &#8220;to make the structure usable.&#8221; Gotta Have a Place to Sit Coming in just over the halfway point of its portion, International Erectors Inc., of Kenosha, WI, has been working steadily on the precast erection for the stadia. This includes the installation of precast components, risers and vomitory panels as well as connecting those components to the steel structure, said Kelly Gore, project manager. The company is installing roughly 1,800 to 1,900 precast components on the job, Gore noted, with daily production at about 30. &#8220;Most of what we are doing is the erection. We are using grout and a welding rod. We don&#8217;t use too many consumables and we get the product from J.W. Peters & Sons, a precast producer,&#8221; Gore said. For this portion, the company is utilizing a variety of equipment with the Manitowoc 2250 including a hydraulic lattice boom crane, a few boom lifts and some scissor lifts. Some of the equipment was rented from Central Contractors, he said, but some, &#8220;is our own.&#8221; &#8220;Central Contractors took good care of us,&#8221; Gore commented. &#8220;There was no more than a couple of hours downtime if we needed something done.&#8221; With production at its peak, International Erectors had 12 workers on site. Now, Gore explained, the number is down to six. &#8220;So far, it is coming along. It is good to see it finally taking shape. We will step up production in the next couple of months and get it completed,&#8221; he said. For the first four to five months of the project, the company was working 7 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. &#8220;Now that the steel erection is tapering off, we are working day shifts, just one shift, and overtime as needed.&#8221;