PCL Construction Services Inc. is serving as the general contractor of the approximately $100 million project that will see the installation of modern and fan-friendly amenitie, including a new centerfield plaza and renovations to the left and right field pavilions.
Historic and famed Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles — the third oldest Major League Baseball ballpark in the country and home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, — is undergoing a major upgrade for the 2020 season, and is slated to host the league's All-Star Game presented by Mastercard.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the start of the Major League Baseball season has been temporarily put on hold.
PCL Construction Services Inc. is serving as the general contractor of the approximately $100 million project that will see the installation of modern and fan-friendly amenities to enhance the fan experience, including a new centerfield plaza and renovations to the left and right field pavilions.
"This latest project continues to demonstrate ownership's commitment to give a first-class experience to the best fans in baseball."
The new plaza will create a stadium "front door" with almost two acres of unique food offerings, entertainment and kids' areas, retail locations, sponsor activations, more social and standing room areas and greater access for those with special needs. The kids' play area is just beyond the wall in straight-away centerfield, and fans will be able to enjoy the game from on top of a newly-constructed batter's eye wall. The plaza was designed to pay homage to Dodger history with statues and a permanent home for the "Legends of Dodger Baseball" plaques.
There are three Architects of Record: Studio-MLA for circulation escalators and plaza landscaping; Levin & Associates for the plaza structures; and DAIQ Architects for the pavilion and elevators.
The remainder of the work includes wrapping up escalators two and three that have precast bridges, escalators one and four that are nearly complete, finishing the hardscape on centerfield and the interior finishes for the buildings in the plaza, doing the final cleaning inside the pavilion and scheduling a punch list to be completed.
"We're at 95 percent completion at this point," said Lucas Rorah, PCL's project superintendent in charge of the elevator and escalator installation. "A major challenge from the beginning was the schedule — a very short duration for a large project. We bid the job at two, 10-hour shifts, six days a week, which was taxing for all the teams, but the rain delays at the beginning forced us to go seven days a week for the past three months."
Equipment
One of the subcontractors is Coreslab Structures LA Inc., which is in charge of doing all the girders and structural components for the two pedestrian bridges and precast elements (shaped like a bathtub) for the two escalators. These elements house the escalators and their mechanical systems.
"We finished our work on April 3," said Steve Reese, Coreslab's iron worker superintendent. "It was an interesting and challenging project. The greatest challenge was working along with Mr. Crane to figure out the proper rigging and making sure that everything fit properly and was working safely."
Coreslab brought in Mr. Crane to set all the concrete girders for the pedestrian bridges and the bathtubs for the escalators. Using a Grove GMK 6350 all-terrain hydraulic truck crane, Mr. Crane was on-site from March 18 to 23, working three days around-the clock to install the girders and bathtubs near the main entrance, followed by one day to move the crane to the second site at the backside of the stadium near the players parking lot, which followed a similar work schedule.
Each two-man crew, an operator and an oiler, worked 10-hour shifts between 4 a.m. and midnight, with a four-hour break to meet local noise restrictions.
Each bridge had three spans that required four 57-to-66 ft.-long girders per-span, which weighed between 33,000 and 61,000 lbs. each.
"We had to set them from a 90-foot radius to avoid damaging the historical features — baseball-shaped landmarks," said Erin Parker, Mr. Crane's project manager. "The bathtubs arrived by truck on their sides and needed to be rotated in the air and oriented to sit into the side of the hill where the escalators are located. We picked them up with two lines on the crane —the main and auxiliary. This type of operation was not part of the operator's manual and we reached out to Grove and the dealership. Grove wrote to us that we could do both lines over the main and rotate the piece"
The firm takes maintenance seriously and the crane operated perfectly during the operations.
The crane was operated by Robby Glavich and Brett Dean, with Nate Senecal and Brad Runyan serving as the oilers. PCL provided the iron workers needed to prepare the pieces that were moved and help set them. Parker was assisted by Mark Sovocol, Mr. Crane's engineering manager who converted the hoisting plans into formal plans for final approval.
"I worked closely with Mark," said Parker. "The time from the award to mobilization was about two weeks and within that time we did four job walks to develop a plan — what we needed to do, what needed to be moved and where to place the crane. We took measurements and made adjustments. We were definitely under the gun. One of only challenges that we didn't anticipate was the civilian traffic in the players parking lot and we took appropriate precautions to ensure the safety of everyone entering the work zone."
Due to the long shifts, Mr. Crane's fatigue management policy was invoked to mitigate the long hours where each operator had to be alert and focused. The company provided transport to and from the work site for the operators and oilers.
Materials removed includes 750 tons of concrete, 25 tons of steel and 2,100 tons of asphalt. New materials are expected to cover 3,500 tons of concrete and 250 tons of steel.
Coreslab used a Genie 80-ft. articulated lift and two 8,000-lb. JLG reachforks and several chainfalls. The company purchases and rents equipment from Sunstate Equipment Rentals.
Most of the equipment that PCL is using is rented or owned by its subcontractors. PCL rented a JLG 1075 telehandler. Equipment owned or rented by subcontractors includes: cranes — Grove TM 9120, Link Belt HTC 8690 and Link Belt HTC-86110; excavators — Cat 352Fa and Hitachi ZX350LC-6s.; and telehandlers — a JLG 1075 and a 1055.
"The equipment is kept in good shape," said Rorah. "Much of the wear and tear is with tires, but a lot of them are airless nowadays, so you don't have to worry about a lot of them, such as a forklift blowing a tire that shuts it down. It's about maintaining oil and transmission and hydraulic fluids. Our operators have a daily checklist and they take all the preventative measures so that we don't have unexpected and severe breakdowns.
"But when they do occur," he added, "we just call our repair shop partners and through the rental companies, they'll fix the equipment right away. They take care of us very well."
In the Los Angeles area, PCL rents equipment from United Rentals, Hertz Rentals and Sunbelt Rentals.
Rorah noted that PCL has been hired to do all the stadium improvements for the past seven years and that the Dodgers.
"It's great to work for them and they recognize the hard work that everyone puts in," he said.
Peak days have had between 300 and 400 PCL and subcontractor employees on-site. PCL has hired many subcontractors, and Rorah noted that the five who had the most work were Morrow Meadows for electrical; Murray Company for plumbing' Maya Steel for structural steel' Zarp Excavating for dirt work' and Bomel Construction Company Inc. for concrete hardscapes. Others include Bragg Crane Service and Merli Concrete Pumping. CEG
Irwin Rapoport
A journalist who started his career at a weekly community newspaper, Irwin Rapoport has written about construction and architecture for more than 15 years, as well as a variety of other subjects, such as recycling, environmental issues, business supply chains, property development, pulp and paper, agriculture, solar power and energy, and education. Getting the story right and illustrating the hard work and professionalism that goes into completing road, bridge, and building projects is important to him. A key element of his construction articles is to provide readers with an opportunity to see how general contractors and departments of transportation complete their projects and address challenges so that lessons learned can be shared with a wider audience.
Rapoport has a BA in History and a Minor in Political Science from Concordia University. His hobbies include hiking, birding, cycling, reading, going to concerts and plays, hanging out with friends and family, and architecture. He is keen to one day write an MA thesis on military and economic planning by the Great Powers prior to the start of the First World War.
Read more from Irwin Rapoport here.
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