Long Time Coming

New health, recreation facility built into Grambling hillside

By Martin Schwartz

It's hard to say how long plans have been in the works for Grambling State University's new Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building.

"Jimmy Carter was president when this project was first proposed," Jerry McMurray, interim associate vice president for facilities management, said during the groundbreaking ceremony in April 2004.

At that same ceremony, Grambling State University President Neari Warner called the $19 million project "long overdue."

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"This new facility is essential in our mission to become a leading cultural center here in north-central Louisiana," Warner said. "This project has been in progress for more than two decades and it is a great day to finally see it come to fruition."

The 137,573-sq.-ft. facility, being built by Lincoln Builders Inc. of Ruston, will house the university's HPER Department and serve as a home for the Grambling basketball programs. It will also serve as a multi-purpose assembly center for the university and surrounding community. Seating is estimated at 7,500 for sporting events and 9,000 for other events.

The structure has two levels, including a 96,000-sq.-ft. events level with classrooms and offices, multipurpose room, banquet areas and weight rooms; and a 49,000-sq.-ft. second-floor concourse with public restrooms, concessions, ticket office and a Hall of Fame display area.

Nat Mixon, Lincoln's project manager, said the facility is being built into a hillside next to the football stadium and therefore required a lot of groundwork before construction could begin.

He said crews had to cut 18 ft. deep into the hillside.

"The backside had a minimal amount of fill, so it was mainly hauled off," Mixon added.

He said about 100,000 cu. yds. of dirt was removed, and "it required four weeks of steady hauling."

The west side of the building - where the main entrance leads into the concourse level - lined up with the top of the hill into which the structure was being built. The ground-level entrance on the other side of the building opens up one story down.

The structural-steel building will have a brick and steel-siding exterior and acoustical-metal deck roof. The bleacher seating on the upper and lower bowl of the stadium is made of precast concrete and the structure has about 65,000 cu. yds. of cast-in-place concrete for foundations and decking.

Mixon said most of the construction has been routine, with the exception of the installation of heavy trusses for the large span over the arena. The two large trusses span 206 ft. and weigh about 70 tons each, Mixon said. Two smaller trusses reach 106 ft. long and weigh about 35 tons.

Assembling the trusses took more than a week.

"The big trusses came in like sticks and we had to assemble them," he added. The preliminary assembly created three big pieces that were spliced together. Web members were bolted in and torqued and the camber was adjusted, all while the truss remained laying on its side.

Once all welds were checked and verified, 200-ton cranes - one stationary and one crawler - were brought in to raise the trusses into place.

"They had it all prerigged the day before and on the morning of the set it took them (Ranger Steel Erectors of Monroe) about three hours to get it lifted up and bolted in place," Mixon said.

At that point, the building started to take shape.

"We had done a lot of work, but it didn't look like it because we had no structure over our heads," Mixon said. "We put those monster trusses up and then put on the regular smaller roof joist and the roof decking. In a period of two weeks it went from a wall up to the sky to having a lid over our heads. We weren't in the dry, but there was a lid."

The building is on target for completion in June.

About 20 subcontractors from across the state have contributed to the job. Steel Fabricators of Monroe is fabricating the steel structure, Bernhard Mechanical Contractors of Baton Rouge is providing mechanical systems, B&J Flooring of Shreveport is supplying flooring and Joe Banks Drywall & Acoustics of Mangham is handling all drywall services.

This is not the first project Lincoln Builders has undertaken for Grambling. With offices just 10 mi. down the road, the company has also completed a computer building, nursing building, intramural complex and stadium-support facility for the university.

But the HPER complex is by far the largest project the company has undertaken at Grambling, Mixon said.

The original architect on the building was AE Design, a company that Mixon said is now defunct. The Newman Marchive Partnership, a Shreveport-based architectural firm is administering the job. Those changes took place prebid and haven't effected the construction, Mixon said.

The building is currently on target for a June 2006 completion.

"This will be a shot in the arm to our athletic programs," athletic director Al Dennis said during groundbreaking ceremonies. "This new facility will make us more competitive with other University of Louisiana System institutions and historic black colleges and universities around the country."

Useful Source:

For updates on the project, go to:
http://www.gram.edu/Departments/Public%20Relations/pressreleases.htm