MINNEAPOLIS — The workforce of the new Vikings stadium is on its way to peaking as construction milestones near the building's roofline continue to be met, a Mortenson Construction representative told the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority Friday at its monthly meeting.
The number of construction workers on site has reached more than 1,000 men and women. Mortenson Constructin Executive Eric Grenz said that number is expected to peak near 1,200 this summer, and the project remains on schedule for completion in July 2016.
Of the workforce, 37 percent are minorities and 10 percent are females, helping the project continue to meet equity goals of 32 and six percent, respectively, that were established at the project's inception. Four percent of the workforce are veterans, and more than 1.2 million worker hours have been applied to execute almost $430 million of installation.
Grenz said 234 Minnesota-based companies have been awarded work, including 35 minority-owned businesses (representing 12 percent of the total dollars; goal is nine) and 55 women-owned businesses, (representing 16 percent; goal is 11).
Four pours of concrete for the stadium's ring beam around the perimeter remain, and one was scheduled Friday. After those are completed early next month, remaining concrete work will involve: slab on metal decks, inner bowl slab on grade, precast stadia steps and elements of the snow gutter.
The final queens post truss on the north side of the stadium is scheduled to be installed today, which will mark placement of eight of the 11 total massive units that connect to the ridge truss and the perimeter walls of the stadium. Another segment of the ridge truss was placed this week, leaving just one span until the east-west gap is closed, which is scheduled to happen in June. All structural steel work for the roof is scheduled to be completed in late September.
Work on the exterior continues to advance, with finished metal plates being placed on the east façade, north of an A-frame glass curtain wall enclosure system that allows in natural light and keeps out the elements. Crews are also installing the exterior steel that holds the finished metal plates, whose color appearance is dynamic, depending on the amount of sunlight.
The upper bowl precast stadia is on track for completion by the end of July, when the lower bowl precast stadia installation is scheduled to begin.
In other action, the MFSA voted to approve an amendment to the master project budget to allow an additional contribution of $14 million from the Vikings and the Wilf family that increases the total team/private contribution to $566 million. Nearly $13 million of the money committed Friday will go toward the stadium's television system and increase the number of HDTVs from 800 to 2,000. The increase places the team/private contribution at 53 percent of the $1.076 billion budget.
