South Carolina precaster
turns a triple play
M
etromont Materials Corp.,
Greenville, S.C., was recently selected to provide
$31 million in precast concrete components for three major sports stadiums in the Southeast. The company is
now in the process of planning and
producing precast elements for the
85,000-seat Olympic Stadium in
Atlanta; the 72,300-seat Carolina
National Football League Panthers
The Carolina Panthers stadium (top) will use nearly
5,000 precast concrete elements when it is completed in May 1996. The Jacksonville Jaguars stadium (left) will contain almost 3,000 precast
pieces.
Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.; and the
73,000-seat National Football League
Jaguars Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla.
Stadium completion dates range from
August 1995 to May 1996.
According to Metromont vice president, Rick Pennel, “I don’t think three
stadiums of this magnitude have ever
been built at the same time in such
close proximity to each other. Through
our two production facilities in Atlanta
and Greenville, S.C., we are able to service all three stadium worksites.”
The company will provide nearly
11,000 total precast concrete pieces for
the three projects, including triplecast risers, tub sections, raker beams,
aisle slabs, and vomitory walls. To
accommodate the needs of the three
projects, the company expects to
spend more than $1 million for custom concrete forms.
ATLANTA’S OLYMPIC STADIUM
The stadium will make its international debut during the Summer
Olympic Games in 1996. In August of
1996, workers will begin a major reconfiguration of the 85,000-seat arena, converting it from an Olympic stadium
into a 50,000-seat baseball park, reminiscent of a historic ballpark.
“This will be a massive conversion,”
Pernell says, “where we will basically
reconfigure the stadium from an oval
to a traditional baseball configuration.
We will move and reuse some of the
precast members, as well as manufacture new pieces, making this a largescale retrofit job. I have never heard of
this type of reconfiguration in the
industry and we believe this is the first
time anyone has ever retrofit a stadium to this magnitude.”
The extensive alterations will remove
thousands of concrete riser seat sec-
tions and involve regrouping of the
concrete structures. For example,
workers will convert the Olympic
media area, which will occupy three
rows of seating, to upscale club seating.
They also will reuse Olympic Stadium
support beams to create a facade surrounding a large landscaped area that
will be used for picnics.
Precast pieces for the Olympic
Stadium are being manufactured in
Metromont’s Atlanta plant.
CAROLINA PANTHERS STADIUM
Nearly 2,000 concrete double tees
will be used in the Panthers Stadium,
in addition to a full range of other precast concrete pieces. The stadium will
showcase massive concrete arches
with entry towers adorned in the
Carolina Panthers’ signature colors of
blue, black, and silver.
More than 2,800 truckloads of precast
After the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta,
the 85,000-seat Olympic stadium (left) will be
reconfigured into a 50,000-seat baseball park
(right). The yellow and green precast sections of
the Olympic Stadium will be removed and the yellow precast pieces reused to form the outfield
seating area of the baseball park.
components will be transported from
the company’s Greenville plant to the
Charlotte stadium site. Metromont will
provide a 300-ton crane on the jobsite
when the precast pieces begin to be
installed in July 1995.
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS STADIUM
Nearly 3,000 precast concrete pieces
will be installed during transformation of the former Gator Bowl to the
new home of the Jacksonville Jaguars
professional football team. As part of
the reconstruction, the 82,000-seat
Gator Bowl was recently almost totally demolished to make way for the
new stadium.
The project began with the demolition and removal of the Gator Bowl’s
entire steel bowl, except for the upper
seating deck on the stadium’s west
side. Construction is now underway to
retrofit the new stadium for the opening game in August 1995. The new
design features two levels of suites on
each side of the stadium, a lower seating bowl around the perimeter of the
field, and construction of a new upper
deck on the east side.
“In addition to the magnitude of the
stadium,” Pennel says, “an interesting
thing about this project is the speedy
schedule. We were awarded the contract in April and must complete all
precast manufacturing and erection of
about 3,000 precast concrete pieces in
less than a year.
“To meet the deadlines,” he says,
“we are using more custom forms on
this project than on the other two stadium projects. Workers at Metromont’s Atlanta plant began producing
and transporting the precast pieces
this summer.
STADIUMS FACT SHEET
OLYMPIC STADIUM
PANTHERS STADIUM
JAGUARS STADIUM
TOTALS
Precast contract
$10 million
$9.6 million
$11.5 million
$31.1 million
Seating capacity
85,000
72,300
73,000
230,300
Completion date
Fall 1995
May 1996
August 1995
—-
Total cubic yards of
concrete for precast pieces
18,065
23,482
15,438
56,985
Total truckloads
1,728
2,793
1,979
6,500
Total precast concrete pieces
3,101
4,883
2,905
10,889
Breakdown by type of piece
Seats
Tub sections
Raker beams
Double tees
Columns
Rail and fascia panels
Vomitory walls
Flat slabs
Aisle slabs
Beams
1,580
136
187
0
256
131
315
69
114
313
1,363
176
138
1,819
138
473
435
198
62
81
1,174
26
226
28
136
780
157
213
65
100
4,117
338
551
1,847
530
1,384
907
480
241
494
PUBLICATION #J941105, Copyright © 1994, The Aberdeen Group, All rights reserved