Roof Steel Erection Scheduled To Begin This Fall on Falcons' Football Stadium

Photo courtesy of EarthCam

Stadium-bowl concrete work, two-thirds complete, is expected to be done by the fall.

Concrete work on the New Atlanta Stadium for football’s Atlanta Falcons is two-thirds complete and expected to be done this fall, says Wayne E. Wadsworth, principal in charge for the stadium’s general contractor, the Holder-Hunt-Russell-Moody Joint Venture, which holds a $1.078-billion guaranteed maximum price contract.

For the structural concrete bowl, the work is all about the megacolumns that will support the structural steel for the signature kinetic roof, says Wadsworth. The big push is to clear the playing field of all concrete operations by the summer to make way for the cranes that Derr & Isbell Construction will use to erect the roof's steel, including the megatrusses that will support the movable "petals." Steel work is scheduled to begin this fall.

The stadium, designed by architect HOK with structural engineer Buro Happold Consulting Engineers PC, has a roof that opens in its center, mimicking the opening of a camera lens. The stadium is expected to open for the 2017 football season.

Nadine M. Post, ENR's former editor-at-large for buildings, is an award-winning journalist with 45 years of experience covering trends, issues, innovations, controversies and challenging projects. Post has written about many industry giants, including 10 ENR Award of Excellence winners. And she has covered disasters, failures and attacks, including the 1993 bombing and the 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center. Project stories include the redevelopment of the World Trade Center; the 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa; Los Angeles’ Disney Concert Hall; and Seattle's Bullitt Center and Rainier Square Tower. In 1985, Post wrote McGraw-Hill's book Restoring the Statue of Liberty (1986) for the restoration’s architects—Richard S. Hayden and Thierry W. Despont.

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