Thursday, February 24, 2000

Reds ballpark will also be built on fast track

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Initial work getting started

BY DAN KLEPAL
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        As Hamilton County officials rush to complete one stadium, they're already preparing to build another on the fast track.

        The first visible work on the new $280 million Reds ballpark started Wednesday as crews took down the big scoreboard in center field at Cinergy Field.

        The scoreboard, removed in five separate 20,000-pound panels, will be moved to right field by Opening Day.

        Then immediately after the last home game of the season, a wrecking ball will take a bite out of the center field stands.

        The partial deconstruction of Cinergy is necessary to make room for the new Reds ballpark. A chunk of the existing stadium — and 14,000 seats — has to be removed so crews can begin putting the new stadium together.

        And much like the work on Paul Brown Stadium, it will be built in a hurry.

Workers move the scoreboard at Cinergy Field Wednesday. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        “The Reds project will inevitably have to be fast-tracked,” said Dan Streyle, project manager on Paul Brown Stadium. “With stadium construction, the end date never changes and there is always time lost on the front end.”

        The Bengals stadium had to be rushed — about 28 months from groundbreaking to the first game — because of delays in finalizing land deals, terms of the stadium lease and cost estimates.

        Officials think they'll have less time to build the Reds ballpark, scheduled to open in time for the 2003 season, and will have to put it together on a more complicated site.

        The ballpark will be squeezed between Firstar Center and a partially demolished Cinergy Field.

        Cost overruns, to the tune of about $45 million, have plagued the building of Paul Brown Stadium. A construction auditor hired by the county has said that lax oversight and a rush to complete the project contributed to those problems.

        But county officials say the same mistakes won't be made on the Reds stadium, even if there is a rush to get the job done.

        “I'm not overly concerned because I don't think the construction practices were entirely to blame for the problems we faced,” Hamilton County Commission President Bob Bedinghaus said.

        “There's nothing systematically wrong with building on a fast track.”

        In fact, it's done all the time.

        Most stadiums built in the past decade have been rush jobs. It happens because teams always want to move into the their new homes as quickly as possible, while the legalities of putting together the deals always drag on longer than expected.

        Philip Bess, a professor of architecture at Andrews University in Michigan, said it's difficult to anticipate what types of problems will crop up when building on the fast track. The only thing for certain is that they will crop up, he said.

        Mr. Bess, who has written a book about stadium construction, said there are problems on every construction site. They are magnified on the fast track.

        “It's just such a complicated site to build on,” Mr. Bess said. “It was an extraordinary decision to build it there.”

        But Fred Hill says the work will get done on time.

        Mr. Hill, superintendent for construction manager Huber, Hunt & Nichols, said the most difficult aspect of the site is that there will be very little room to store materials needed during construction.

        “We'll have to time the deliveries right so as it gets here it goes right up,” said Mr. Hill, who has built four other professional sports stadiums. “There is very little staging area. But we'll be ready.”

        A big difference between the two stadiums is that county officials will not have to pay the Reds millions in late fees if the stadium isn't ready for Opening Day 2003, said county administrator Dave Krings.

        But Mr. Streyle said that doesn't mean there won't be just as much pressure to get the work done on time.

        “There may not be penalties, but there are costs that would be in curred because it would impact other projects around the stadium,” Mr. Streyle said. “Being late certainly won't come free.”

        Still, county officials say lessons from Paul Brown Stadium will pay dividends when building the Reds ballpark. And any cost overruns, they say, will be the responsibility of the team.

       

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