category: 7 – best building project – specialty contractor...

Colorado State University New Multi-Purpose Stadium on Main Campus Project Award Narrative

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Category: 7 – Best Building Project – Specialty Contractor (Over $10 million)

Contractor: Encore Electric

Project Name: Colorado State University New Multi-Purpose Stadium on Main Campus

It’s a night game, but with LED lights it’s bright. After the whistle blows, a call is made

and fans holler and jeer. All eyes scan the scoreboard for the instant replay. More cheering and

moaning. They will never agree on the final call, but there is one thing on which they will all

agree—this stadium is incredible. What went on behind the scenes with constricted schedules,

proactive preconstruction, construction technology, regimented quality control and safety

programs is something most fans cannot imagine. Our craftsmen have a real passion for football

in Colorado, and the opportunity to work on the new stadium for Colorado State University

united their passions with their talents as craftsman, ultimately delivering a new level of pride

themselves.

The countdown to kickoff on August 25, 2017 at the new Colorado State University

Stadium starts with the beginning of a new era for CSU football. After a disappointing 2007

season, the administration at CSU heard the fans loud and clear: change. That change would

mean new ways of doing business, new recruiting, new offensive and defensive schemes and,

most importantly for the purposes of our story, a new stadium – built on campus with the latest

technology to recruit the talent to build a new era of Rams football.

Encore’s part of the story starts with the first of eight budgets and countless pricing

exercises beginning on November 15, 2013. Encore was chosen by Mortenson Construction

because they offered greater value engineering, creative cost solutions and proven ability to build

at a fast pace with overlapping design and construction schedules.

The planning phase started in July 2015 with construction starting in November. The 20-

month schedule is one of the fastest schedules for a collegiate football stadium, which

historically ranges from 26 months to 42 months to build. This aggressive schedule created trade

stacking, causing productivity concerns that ate up any potential float built into the schedule.

The following are creative ideas our team used to improve productivity for all trades on

the job site.

• Field leadership dedicated many hours of pre-planning to ensure that electrical

installation did not distract from the clean line of the structure or impede game day sight


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lines. Planning that included 759,000 feet of conduit and 2.3 million feet of wire that

went into the stadium.

• The virtual design coordination also allowed for innovative prefabrication ideas, like the

underground distribution cages. These cages were built off-site in our prefabrication

center and shipped to the jobsite for a “just-in-time” installation, alleviating weeks of

underground dirt work and job site congestion. There was one full time on-site VDC

Coordinator who worked with the general contractor and all the trades. The coordination

and communication of the installation plan was vital to the success of this project. A

requirement of the project was no underground work on the stadium. Encore Electric

crews had to find the best path for conduit during both the estimating and constructing

phases of the project and to align with the curved structure. Encore used its in-house 3D

BIM capability to coordinate the installed systems. During construction, Total Station

equipment was used to locate floor boxes and conduits in walls prior to wall installation

using GPS. Our one full-time, on-site Total Station Operator shot over 10,000 points for

install locations. Using this method, our margin of error was 0.3%.

• This was a paperless project with all construction documents stored and transferred

electronically. Field drawings were accessed by portable tablet PC devices while on-site

and flat screen monitors in the jobsite trailer. By touching the electronic drawing on the

tablet, QC forms, wall and ceiling rough, as well as device trim, were literally available at

their fingertips.

• Our quality control process began in our 16,000 square foot prefabrication center.

Materials are 100% controlled, from start to finish, in this environment. All materials are

checked by our Quality Control Manager before being delivered to a job site by QED.

• Given that this was built into the middle of CSU’s campus, where there were many

curious student and staff future fans, a lack of room, good flow or organization led to our

team having no room on the center field or in the surrounding areas for materials, so we

created a unique material delivery plan consisting of our off-site prefabrication center.

More than 100 Encore Electric employees provided power to the entire stadium,

including transformers and switchgear, branch power and pathways for the AV system, which

was provided by the owner. The takeoffs themselves were fast-paced and a challenge because of


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the atypical nature of this large project. Building walks didn’t always match the drawings

because of the high ceilings and curved pipe runs following the oval shape of the stadium.

Building began before design completion. Encore estimates that 75% of the construction

design was completed when Encore started electrical work. Crews were split into teams by area.

Early in construction, Encore Electric’s craftsmen ran into a huge problem – one that

could derail the entire project. In the southwest corner of the stadium where the main electrical

room was planned, the Encore crew encountered significant ground water – almost a geyser!

Keep in mind that this room was 18 feet below grade and was only one of 16 total electrical

rooms! The Encore team was able to dewater and work in parallel as the clock kept ticking.

Arguably the largest challenge on the project was a light feature on the ceiling of the

sideline field club featuring the CSU Ram logo. It was made up of 120 strip LED features,

developed by a manufacturer from Canada and built in Hong Kong. After a significant delay in

delivery because of customs challenges, they were delivered; however, the panels were supposed

to be six feet long but 84 of the 120 panels measured 6’ 2” long, and could not be assembled as

designed because they simply did not fit together. Instead of returning or reordering the panels

and possibly missing the schedule, our team disassembled, cut and reassembled them in place.

This took four electricians five full days to complete, which was not in the planned tight

schedule.

As the countdown to kickoff continued, more systems were coming online. All the sports

lights on the stadium were installed by our Encore Electric team. Originally, the plan was to

move the HID sports lights from the existing stadium to save money, but LED sports lights

improved the schedule and the environment. The new CSU stadium is one of the first stadium

projects in the nation to build and install LED sports lights in new construction! The pre-set

sports lights were delivered to the project site ready to install thanks to our prefabrication

department. We used a 185-foot boom lift to take the conduit up to the lights at the top of the

stadium – 124 feet in the air.

The size and physical nature of the work was grueling. Some electricians had to climb

shipmens ladders for five weeks straight while working on wiring the scoreboard. The 20-man

crews on our team that built the suites and press boxes climbed six flights of stairs up to 10-12

times a day. That equates to a football team of 62 men on ellipticals for 48 hours!


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In July 2016, halfway through the project and with the countdown to kickoff down to 13

months, the many challenges on the site found the Encore Electric team in need of some energy.

We invited Sonny Lubick, the stadium’s namesake and Colorado State football legend, to join

Encore’s jobsite employee barbecue. He gave a rousing “halftime” speech that really provided

power to the team as they approached the second half.

A happy and energized team is a safe one, and safety was critical to the success of this

project. Encore had a full-time, dedicated safety manager on-site who held daily safety job

walks, weekly tool box talks and implemented a behavior-based safety program that influences

safer outcomes through prevention. Of the total 278,275 Encore man-hours, there were ZERO

lost time accidents!

The completed stadium cost $220 million, with $21 million of electrical. There are 7

levels and it has a capacity of 41,000 spectators!

The countdown to kickoff ended on August 26, 2017, as the CSU Rams took on the

Oregon State Beavers in the first game at the stadium. One hundred Encore Electric employees

were there to watch a home-team win and enjoy what they had built. Finally, for this game and

the subsequent three games, Encore has three guys tooled up and ready to go.

Going forward, as players prepare on electric-powered fitness machines so they can

create those close plays that fans watch again on the scoreboard or when night games are made

possible by the LED stadium lights, Encore Electric’s team will be truly satisfied of the

collaboration, efforts and dedication of the entire stadium team that brings those experiences to

players and fans. Now, the winning of the game -- well, that’s out of their hands.


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category: 7 – best building project – specialty contractor...

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