Rain Delay: Downpour causes much of ballpark construction to stop on Wednesday

Wednesday’s heavy rain halted much of the construction activity at the downtown ballpark.

Project Engineer Alan Shubert said there are usually about 150 crew members working on the project but on Wednesday, only about a dozen workers continued construction.

“There’s very little construction that we can do today because of the mud,” said Shubert.

Shubert said the soil composition at the site drains water well because it’s fine sand. The deeper water will be pumped out so that the construction can go back to normal by Thursday.

He said they’ve lost about two days of full on construction because of the weather since the beginning of the project.

But Shubert knows they may lose more days because of the weather.

“There’s not a lot you can do except try to work around the weather and the weather is one of those variables that – that’s why I can’t tell you we will be done on X day,” Shubert said. “We have a schedule that says we’ll be done in April but the weather is one of the variables that can absolutely have a major effect on that.”

Crews are slated to lay out more concrete by Friday, if the weather permits. So far, part of the concourse has been erected and crews are already working on concession stands.

“So you’re now starting to see elements of the ballpark that so far you’ve only seen conceptually and now you’re seeing concrete and steel in that shape. We are on schedule,” Shubert said. “There are elements that we’re struggling with. Again, the weather is a wild card but we are committed to having this thing done by sometime in April.”