Multitude of Cranes Raising Cowboys' Ten-Gallon Stadium

Enlarge Image The Dallas Cowboys Stadium construction project is awash in cranes this summer as the massive facility goes up in Arlington, Texas.

August 8, 2007 • Two summers from now, the multitude of cranes at the site of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium facility project in Arlington, Texas, will be a vague memory to everyone except the many working in and around the machines building the massive new sports stadium. With concrete form work going on, bleachers going up, and preparation for a steel roof going overhead, there are a lot of cranes on site. It's a big project • but after all, this is Texas. According to project information, the new facility will include a retractable roof, seating for about 80,000, more than 200 suites, and 200,000 square feet of club space. 

Home to the Dallas Cowboys, it will also host large concerts, high school football, NCAA bowl games, and a variety of other major events, including Super Bowl XLV in 2011.

           

Manhattan Construction, out of Tulsa, Okla., is managing the project. Derr Steel Erection Co., in Euless, Texas, will build the roof. Precast Erectors, Hurst, Texas, is putting the bleachers in place, while Baten Steel Erectors, Dallas, Texas, is providing crawler cranes for the concrete formwork. In all, 18 cranes have worked on the project, and the majority will be in place until the job is done.

           

Six of the 18 cranes are Liebherr tower cranes; two are 65-ton Terex hydraulic cranes; and the rest are crawlers of various makes and sizes, including Link-Belt, Manitowoc, Demag and American. At press time, one of the tower cranes rented from Morrow Equipment was coming down, while Derr was assembling the 600-ton Demag rented from Deep South Crane & Rigging.  The bleacher seating arrived on a truck in 3,000 pieces and will require two Link-Belts to put it in place.

           

With so many different contractors on such a huge project, pre-planning played a major role in this 40-month project, according to Kevin McKay, senior superintendent. Getting a jump on things, the planning team lined up its equipment list early, and because of that, were able to get all of the machinery needed on the job. “We planned in February, and put the first crane up in September,” he said. “We didn't let it become a problem.” 

           

Talk is constant on the jobsite, reported McKay. With so many different stages of the project taking place at one time, crews are working in and out of each other's respective areas. Constant communication lets everyone know if a crew is going to be in another's space. Not communicating can create problems especially for tower crane operators, he said, if another crane finds itself in someone's tail swing. “They don't know you're there if you don't talk to them,” he said. 

           

But in building the future home of the Dallas Cowboys, McKay said coordination is key to the project's ongoing success. “There's nothing more difficult about this job than any other, except there's a lot more going on, and a lot more people helping out,” he said. “Everybody's doing their part.”