Globe Life Field 89 percent finished and on schedule, even if it doesn’t look that way
An executive for Manhattan Construction Co. said unequivocally Wednesday that the construction of Globe Life Field will be completed March 1, as scheduled before a two-alarm fire burned some 2,000 square feet Saturday afternoon.
The materials damaged by the fire to the future home of the Texas Rangers have already been stripped away. None of the damage was on the inside of the ballpark. Work elsewhere has continued, and the investigation into the cause and the assessment of the damage are complete.
Considering that the project is 1.8 million square feet, 2,000 square feet is a drop in the bucket. And there’s this: The ballpark is 89 percent complete.
Yet, as much as it looks like a ballpark, it still looks like a construction zone in spots.
There are seating bowls, but most of them don’t have seats.
There is a roof, but it has some rather significant openings in it.
The playing surface has been leveled, but the custom-made synthetic turf isn’t down.
There are concession stands, but none of the equipment has been hooked up.
That’s what 89 percent complete looks like, apparently.
“There is a great amount to be done, but there’s progress being made every day,” Rangers executive vice president Rob Matwick said. “If you’re building a house or another project, you might come in the morning and look at it, and come out at lunch or the end of the day and it doesn’t seem like anything has changed.
“I tell people on this project, if I come in the morning and if I leave by midmorning or midday, things change. It’s moving that fast.”
An estimated 1,400 workers, give or take a few dozen, are on site daily at 734 Stadium Drive, an address that honors Nolan Ryan and Ivan Rodriguez. They work day and night, and on weekends, too.
That was evidenced Saturday, when sparks from a welder fell on the fifth floor onto flammable material below and started a fire that was controlled by the Arlington Fire Department in 37 minutes. No one was injured, and all workers were evacuated to a nearby parking lot.
“The fire was contained on a lower roof level at the top of the upper concourse,” Manahattan vice president Greg McClure said. “We had some materials stored up there, and some containers caught fire and went up very fast.”
The first scheduled event at the Globe Life Field is a March 14 concert featuring Chris Stapleton and Willie Nelson. An exhibition game between the Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals is scheduled for March 23, and the first regular-season game is scheduled for March 31 against the Los Angeles Angels.
And all 40,300 seats, every panel on the roof, all 24 elevators, both video boards and the turf and everything else will be in place on the original timeline despite the weekend fire.
“It doesn’t affect it at all,” McClure said.
