Gilbane’s Sports and Entertainment Center of Excellence brings extensive resume of experience to provide guidance and maximize value.
The State of Connecticut selected the joint venture team of Gilbane Building Company and Hunt Construction Group as their construction manager for a new 16-acre open-air college football stadium. Rentschler Field serves as the home field for University of Connecticut’s Huskies. The new stadium seats 40,000 fans, with the ability for expansion to 60,000. Patrons of the stadium enjoy specialty areas including 700 indoor club seats, 4,000 outdoor club seats and 36 luxury suites. Full kitchen facilities support the club area, and 20 concession stands service the remainder of the stadium. Rentschler Field features a natural Kentucky bluegrass playing field, obtained from a specified sod farm to ensure quality. Designed to facilitate soccer, lacrosse, and special events such as concerts, the stadium boasts a 24’ x 32’ screen video matrix board. Four 125’ high light poles (316 light fixtures) will light the field for night games and other events.
Situated on a former airfield, the site presented construction issues. The composition of the site included a high amount of clay, which was not conducive to the stadium’s construction. The excavation of 125,000 cubic yards of clay from the site was required for the concrete field wall and seating for the lower bowl to be placed. In addition, a unique low-density concrete fill had to be used to support the precast seating. Achieving the correct density and strength for the concrete mix was particularly challenging; in order to assure the quality, Hunt/Gilbane had to procure the services of three concrete subcontractors before the mix was acceptable.
Hunt/Gilbane successfully managed both cost and schedule, and the stadium was turned over to the owner a full three months earlier than the contract completion date and in time for the first game of the season to be played.