Will Atlanta's new stadium be done in time for the NFL season? Update: more delays possible

Haven't seen much progress on the roof in a week. It appears they have another set of parts for the movable sections ready to lift. I'm thinking they might have to move the 8 sections to the open positions to have room to set the last sections.

Almost half way through March and it's difficult to imagine how they could get done by June.
 
Haven't seen any significant additions to the movable roof for two weeks. Very little progress on the fixed roof either. They are proceeding with seat installation. They are also dismantling another mid size crane inside the stadium.
 
Another month in the books and progress still seems very slow. In this fish eye image from inside the stadium, the silver duct work for the air conditioning system can be seen hanging from the roof in the upper right. They started hanging it December first and there are still several sections to be added to the opposite end on the left side. A similar amount of work will have to be completed on the right side. Since it has taken over 4 months to do one side, I'm assuming it will take a similar amount of time to do the other side. That would put it into August.
http://www.earthcam.net/projects/atlantafalcons/newstadiumrwd/rwd.php?cam=cchd
Go to the bottom and select the panoramic view. The image isn't available as a link.
 
Fisheye lens proves the stadium is flat imo
 
It might not be ready for the CFB kickoff games in late August...
 
They finally put another roof section up Sunday morning. It's still attached to the crane tonight.
 
Just for reference, this is what the inside of the Vikings new stadium looked like on April 4th last year. All cranes were out of the building by the end of January.
transmogrify.rsr


transmogrify.rsr
 
Cranes raised two more sections of the movable roof into place. One hoisted by the largest crane remaining yesterday evening and one by a slightly smaller crane early this morning. I was surprised because severe weather is forecast for this afternoon.
 
It appears they have six of the 8 sections of the third series for the movable roof in place and they are building the 4th and final series on the stadium floor. Once they get the roof sections installed, they have to cover them with something. With the rate of progress I'm seeing, I don't know if they can finish by the end of the year. Progress on the rest of the roof shown on the cameras is almost non-existent.

They started building the Vikings stadium 3 months earlier than this stadium and had to remove the old stadium first. They had to work through Minnesota winters and still got it done in just over 2 years and months ahead of schedule. They've been building this for 3 years now.

They spent 4 months preparing the floor, paving and installing the field in Minnesota. Granted they were in no hurry but if they get the floor of this stadium ready to prepare the surface by May 1st, a similar timeline would push it past the scheduled pre-season games in late August.
 
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ralphc1 said:
It appears they have six of the 8 sections of the third series for the movable roof in place and they are building the 4th and final series on the stadium floor. Once they get the roof sections installed, they have to cover them with something. With the rate of progress I'm seeing, I don't know if they can finish by the end of the year. Progress on the rest of the roof shown on the cameras is almost non-existent.

They started building the Vikings stadium 3 months earlier than this stadium and had to remove the old stadium first. They had to work through Minnesota winters and still got it done in just over 2 years and months ahead of schedule. They've been building this for 3 years now.

They spent 4 months preparing the floor, paving and installing the field in Minnesota. Granted they were in no hurry but if they get the floor of this stadium ready to prepare the surface by May 1st, a similar timeline would push it past the scheduled pre-season games in late August.
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It's also $600 million over cost...
 
I guess that if the new domes isn't ready for preseason they could use Bobby Dodd Stadium as a fallback option if it's just for the 2 preseason games. I don't think that you'd want to do that for the regular season but if you have to use an alternate stadium for preseason it isn't the worst thing ever.

It's actually amazing that they're essentially wokig on 3 different dstadiums in Atlanta at the same time. New baseball stadium opens on Friday and they're reconfiguring Turner Field for Georgia State football.
 
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Apparently they haven't ruled out playing in the Georgia Dome from this piece in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

A spokeswoman for the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, which operated the Dome and on whose campus the new stadium is being built, said preparations for demolition have begun, such as removing the turf. But “until the Dome is demolished it could be utilized,” Jennifer LeMaster said Wednesday.
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Posted: 4:51 p.m. Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Atlanta Falcons officials expect to have an update within seven to 10 days on the construction timeline for Mercedes-Benz Stadium — an update that should shed light on whether the retractable roof will be completed in time for the downtown stadium’s scheduled opening.

Issues with the complex roof already have delayed the opening twice, first pushing back the target from March 1 to June 1 and then pushing it back further to July 30, and appear to threaten another delay.

In a statement provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Steve Cannon, CEO of Falcons parent company AMB Group, said the organization hasn’t changed the July 30 opening date at this point but is “working through the construction timelines.”
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http://www.myajc.com/sports/footbal...mercedes-benz-stadium/AD33lATW4eNdzZCRlzZ3RI/

They are now beyond that 7 to 10 day time when they thought they would have an update.
 
They're in danger of losing the Alabama/Florida State kickoff game Labor Day weekend to Orlando.
 
I'm curious how they didn't seem to know how to build this when they started. Another example of architects getting in over their head. They all want to make their name with somebody else's money.

There is some mention of using the stadium without the roof being finished. I'm pretty sure they need a crane inside the building to get materials up there. I don't think they can reach that far from the outside with much weight unless they bring that big Manitowac 31000 back. They have to pave the floor to put the field in. That pavement isn't heavy enough to handle such a large crane and would be damaged if they wait until the season is over to finish the roof.
 
I'm shocked at how long I've been following this and Ralph's updates.
 
If they don't get the ceiling done before the season they could theoretically just play this season with an unfinished roof and then after the season is over with finish the roof. Then replace the field afterwards.
 
Lethal_Striker said:
If they don't get the ceiling done before the season they could theoretically just play this season with an unfinished roof and then after the season is over with finish the roof. Then replace the field afterwards.
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I suspect these large cranes are booked years ahead of time. I don't know if they need to close the roof. It appears that they have some sections of the seating areas covered with plastic to keep water out. The concrete was installed in pre-cast sections. I would have thought they would have sealed them so they could hose them down for cleaning but maybe not.

They raised the 8th and final piece of the third set of pieces in the movable section of the roof. It appears that they have 2 of the fourth series of pieces constructed and 2 more under construction. It took about 5 days to assemble one section.

At some point they will have to open the roof to install the final segments as there won't be room for a crane boom.
 
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I was under the impression that they were already dismantleing the Georgia Dome, but as long as they still have that up you can still use that facility until the new stadium is done, so its basically worrying about nothing. But it's still only April and won't need to use the stadium until August and even if its not ready on time it's only preseason games being moved to the old stadium.
 
Lethal_Striker said:
I was under the impression that they were already dismantleing the Georgia Dome, but as long as they still have that up you can still use that facility until the new stadium is done, so its basically worrying about nothing. But it's still only April and won't need to use the stadium until August and even if its not ready on time it's only preseason games being moved to the old stadium.
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That was what I was wondering because they were saying that they would start dismantling the Georgia Dome after the Monster Jam truck show March 4th. Apparently that didn't happen as the news story said that the only thing that had been done was to remove the field which they probably do before they bring the dirt in for those events. As long as they still have everything there it will be a matter of deciding who sits where.

As long as Blank and the contractors don't get into a money squabble, they might be able to get it finished for some games this season.

Most projects have a schedule that they publish. They had a video schedule for the Vikings stadium and they pretty much kept ahead of it. They mostly worked 8 hour days and 40 hour weeks.

I don't know what date they had planned to have the roof finished on this stadium but I suspect they had planned to be finished with at least all of the framework by the first of this year. They will need to get the roof open to get the crane booms lowered. It doesn't look like enough room for either boom to be lowered. Certainly not the tallest one. It appears that they are working around the clock and on weekends.
 
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