FEA TURE — LIVESTRONG SPOR TING
could be built to meet a projected June 2011 opening. We said, ‘You have to be prepared to make fast decisions!’ We all got together and said, ‘Let’s go!’ The resulting acceleration of the construction project was a monu- mental task. It was six to seven days a week, with a lot of work in a little time. “Among key site problems was a bit of ground water,
and there was not an enormous amount of lay-down area, so we had to do some just-in-time deliveries. The real problems were generated by a very wet January-March period in 2010 when ground excavation began. We were taking a 22-month schedule jammed into 17 months, so every day lost with two 12-hour shifts really meant losing three days. Also, starting in February, in addition to a lot of excavation during cold weather, we erected a 30ft-tall shotcrete retaining wall around half the site on the west and south sides for the field level areas. “We released a mill order for the roof and structural
steel in December 2009, so it would be available to erect when needed. Excavation foundation drawings were done in February 2010, but we did not get construction docu- ments until April 30. Our mill order steel had been ordered, so we brought in our steel contractor in a design-assist role early on, and completed the structural steel detailing with Thornton Tomasetti between January and April. This was done so steel fabrication could meet construction of the west suite tower — the critical path for the whole project, which had to start in late April. “From a construction standpoint, the critical path was getting the total 342,000sqft ready for all the other trades. We set the structure for the whole stadium first to release the building square footage, then started setting the roof trusses around August, and finally came back
P ARK
and completed the roof, clearing areas below as we went around the stadium. This past winter we were working on interior spaces and did not complete most of the exterior wall until spring. One of the last pieces was the signature aluminium fins on the exterior, with our sub- contractor A2MG finishing up that work in late spring.” Heitmann emphasised: “Tight teamwork was the real
key to getting the job done. From our contractor’s view, from early on we would call on Thornton Tomasetti to come out late at night and on weekends. It was the same for Populous, with a full-time on-site person with author- ity to make fast decisions, and sometimes two, as need- ed. In addition to the architect, contractor and engineer, the owner also had daily site presence, with Sporting Club’s David Ficklin, VP of design, and Rory O’Connor, VP of Construction, expediting necessary decisions.”
Raising the Roof Steve Hofmeister, Thornton Tomasetti’s Principal in Charge for the LIVESTRONG roof structure, told PanSta- dia: “We took a look at almost every soccer and non-soc- cer stadium built in the US and elsewhere over the last few years. We wanted to elevate the US soccer stadium design but not by copying anything. The key that drove the shape came from Jeff Spear and Jon Knight at Popu- lous, who took a look at the roof following the arc of a soccer ball as it travelled across the field. We were able to convert the roof of the stadium as it went around the various stadium functions — bigger elements on the east side rather than the north, and the concourses got wider as we went around the helix.” Project Manager, Art Hortua, added: “We used poly-
carbonate clear plastic roofing for more extensive sun- light, as we spread out the spans and distances between the supporting elements.”
SRO crowd at June 9, 2011, opening night at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park for MLS
Sporting Kansas City. IMAGE: SPORTING KANSAS CITY
BOLD NEW START ➲
20 th AN N I V ER S AR Y
P AR T
II/ S U M M ER 1 2
P AN S T AD I A
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