Construction

In the construction industry, variations of this joke / cartoon have been around since - well, forever. This is the latest version that's been floating around.

Football

Each year in the off season, there's furious activity going on to complete maintenance and upgrades to Carter-Finley Stadium.

We're in the last stages of this year's work. And not quite on schedule - as usual.

A lot of the old worn concrete and asphalt concourse has been replaced. A lot of sub-surface drainage improvements (which the fans will never see). All the old railings will have been replaced. New concourse lighting installed. Well, it'll be finished on the east stands anyway. High intensity discharge lights - think super bright supermarket type lights. New drainage for all the upper stands and discharge pipes. Lots of joint seals and expansion joints have been replaced. Concrete repairs and patches and sealant applied. About a million dollars worth of maintenance.

This is the new asphalt and concrete concourse. The asphalt areas are on the east side. Eventually, we expect another sky box and club seat tower just like the Vaughn Towers will be built on the east side and the concourse and plaza will be upgraded to look like the west side. If anybody wants to write a check for $60 Million - we'll get started right after the last game.




All the railings in the stadium are being replaced. The little cylinder is a hydraulic tension test of the anchor rods. The old sleeves have been removed; new concrete installed; holes drilled and new anchor rods embedded that are 9 to 12 inches deep in the concrete. Each and every anchor rod is tested. I told them to replace all the flange nuts with either lock washers or lock nuts. Why? Because drunk asshats and students would be able to take off regular nuts and throw them down on people. The nuts are about an inch and a half in diameter. Ouch!


We've finally paved the area between the east gates and the first parking lot roadway. This used to be gravel - in theory. In reality, when we had heavy rains - this area was a sea of mud and water. Several inches deep. The paving was cheap. The drainage pipes and infrastructure cost a ton o money.

All construction activity has to stop tomorrow at noon and all equipment moved out and access to the stands blocked off. Saturday is Meet The Pack Day. Sunday - everything gets moved back in for the final hectic week of work.

The plan is to have the rails finished; concourse work finished, the new drain pipe down leaders strapped and anchored in; and concourse seating installed (the rows of seats on wooden platforms installed - which believe it or not are considered premium seating) all done by next Friday. Giving the athletic department the following week to set up for the opening game.

The contractor thinks he'll be able to get the west side high intensity lighting installed by then as well. We'll see. If he's close - we'll let him go a few extra days - say till the following Wednesday. Which will be just 3 days before kick off.

If the Athletics Department sees construction going on in the final week before kick off - they'll have a freaking fit. Lee Fowler would probably have a stroke.

Hey, that's the way constructiton is. I can live with that.

LOL

PS - Chip

The regular stadium maintenance crew ordered up a whole bunch of replacement cub holders this year. The head of maintenance took down your seat number and said he'll take care of it.