Construction of El Paso’s Triple-A ballpark on schedule

Construction on El Paso’s new Downtown ballpark is starting to become much more visual.

The project has entered the fifth month of what’s expected to be a year-long process and now a third of the way into construction, the $60 million dollar-plus ballpark is starting to rise out of the ground and into the air.

“I think we are in really good shape to meet our marks and meet our deadline,” said Ballpark Project Engineer Alan Shubert, who despite last week’s rain must deliver a finished product by the beginning of the Pacific Coast League season in April 2014. “We’re 100 percent done with all the underground foundation work and about 30 percent done with the concrete columns.”

After completing the foundation work, Shubert says the fun part is yet to come.

“What you’ll see in the next coming weeks, you’re going to see a lot of material come to the site,” Shubert said. “You’ll start seeing structural steel, big pre-cast concrete parcels.”

The dimensions down the left field and right field line on the five and a half acre site are just 324 feet, relatively short for a ballpark, especially one in high altitude and in high heat. But there’s a very interesting solution to keep balls in the ballpark.

“I know high altitude locations they use humidors,” Shubert said. “They put the baseballs in a humidor.”

That makes the balls heavier and they don’t travel as far.

“It’s not as easy as it sounds (to hit it out),” Shubert said. “At the left field pole is a 24 foot wall. We got a mini-green monster.”

Shubert says only weather could delay the project.

“As we come out of the ground, weather becomes less of a concern, but it can still be an issue,” Shubert said. “It can still be a problem if we have a real wet summer and it looks like we could. This project has field level, suite level and press level. It’s a four level stadium, which is very uncommon for minor league fields. It’ll be 70 feet high at its highest point. The intent is to provide a Major League experience at a Minor League price.”

Pacific Coast League officials told me today the 2014 schedule will be announced in just two weeks.

The league is expected to realign its divisions and talk is El Paso could be paired with Round Rock and Albuquerque, which means baseball fans here would get to see the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers affiliates play more often in El Paso.