[WRE UPDATE | PROJECT]
65,000 people, and 73,000 during rare events, the building boasts approximately 1.8 million square feet and costs approximately $828 million. “We wanted a design that encourages a connection into the neighborhoods, that will spur economic development and that will act as a destination rather than a barrier,” said Michele Kelm-Helgen, Chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority.
The NFL Vikings For the Vikings, who have had one of the highest winning percentages in the NFL since the team’s first season in 1961 according to
Pro-Football-Reference.com, the stadium was principally constructed with the city’s professional football team in mind. Additionally, the Vikings team and has contributed a healthy sum of money directly from the team for its construction. Allowing fans to sit closer to the football event than any other NFL stadium, the new Vikings Stadium will host the 2018 Super Bowl. “Not only is this facility unique to Minnesota, but the stadium will also provide Vikings fans with the best game-day experience in the NFL, which has always been our goal,” said Vikings Owner/President Mark Wilf at the stadium ground-breaking day ceremony.
The Stadium’s Structure Indeed a mega-structure with a contemporary, folded, and dynamic structural design, the Vikings Stadium relies almost entirely upon a sophisticated web of structural steel. As the building is at least half-way completed, ten queen’s post trusses (a common roof truss member that bears roof weight in tension and can span long openings) are already installed. One queen’s post truss alone weighs 280,000 pounds, is 190 feet long, and 11.5 feet wide. Te ridge truss is the heaviest piece of steel structure on the project weighing 653,000 pounds and a total of 715,000 pounds including the rigging weight involved with the erection of the truss. Te ridge truss is set in place approximately 260 feet above the event level and is 36 feet at its deepest dimension, 16 feet wide, and 197 feet long. Te Stadium’s ring beam is a structural component composed of a mixture of concrete and reinforcing steel that runs both horizontally and vertically throughout the beam. Te purpose of the ring beam is to support the wall and column connections
74 JULY-AUGUST 2015
Photo courtesy Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority
CAPABLE OF SEATING 65,000 PEOPLE, AND 73,000 DURING RARE EVENTS, THE BUILDING BOASTS APPROXIMATELY 1.8 MILLION SQUARE FEET AND COSTS APPROXIMATELY $828 MILLION
allowing the building’s major structural components to be then bound together. In particular, the ring beam (which is a common component of most large, open-aired structures) creates a structural diaphragm at the top of the stadium’s columns in order to support the roof trusses and to transfer the load to the columns. Tere are 1200 concrete columns in total throughout the project. Te total weight of all the steel in the
project equals 22 million pounds. 18 cranes had been installed on-site for the steel and concrete column erection process alone. It took one of Mortenson’s project managers four hours a day to coordinate which crane would move at what time and where on the project to avoid any accidental collisions. Te “prow” part of the building stretches toward downtown almost as if to gesture movement toward the city. Te tip of the prow reaches 313 feet high or 31-stories, which is two- times higher than any portion of the previous Metrodome structure.
Construction Challenges Te construction of such a project is far from a simple undertaking. 16,000
WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
construction activities populate Mortenson’s construction schedule. With each activity comes innumerable moving parts, such as the coordination and scheduling of labor and part delivery; all of these tasks are planned in synchronicity so that the mid-summer 2016 goal is met. Tis is quite likely, “the most complex NFL Stadium designed and built in the U.S. I think the community will be very pleased,” says John Wood, Senior Vice President for Mortenson Construction. Te project also is seeking LEED Certification and has incorporated several new, innovative materials on the exterior as well as on the interior of the building. But the interior and exterior components
aren’t the only structures at play here. With a good part of the stadium built underground, there’s plenty of subterranean work to be done. Te Geotechnical Engineer, Mike Heuer with Braun Intertec, had an integral role to play in the project design and construction process. Minneapolis has an ancient riverbed running underneath the downtown part near the location of the new Vikings Stadium. Te ancient riverbed was created many thousands of years ago
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